


Subnautica

by Aleksa_writes



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Future, Forgive my humor, Hongbin is a sassy sue, M/M, Minor Cha Hakyeon | N/Jung Taekwoon | Leo, Minor as in I talk about it once and that's it, Past Relationship(s), Rating will change, Slow Build, Underwater adventures in a abyssal base, i guess?, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-11-12 04:38:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 54,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11154414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aleksa_writes/pseuds/Aleksa_writes
Summary: “It’s not good, there’s contamination coming.”  Hakyeon places his papers and his customary cup of coffee over the table, eyes leaving Hongbin who had stalked after them like a madman and back at Taekwoon.He swallows his coffee like he had swallowed on sawdust instead. “What kind of contamination?” Hakyeon asks him, trying to clear his throat for the liquid decided to go partially to his lungs when he swallowed.“Oil. It’s not a big crack, but enough to create leakage. In exchange we have water coming into the pipes. It’s rusting the interior of the main generator, if we stay here, at this pressure the entire engine might stop. We might get stranded down here.” Hongbin notices just now the man is slightly out of breath, wearing the top part of his black jumpsuit tied around his waist, the gray shirt he wears underneath is completely soaked on the back, he must have laid under things down in the machine room. “This is not safe, we have to resurface.”





	1. Chapter 1

Today, as any other day, Hongbin is compelled to think. Think not about futilities of existence and the natural drama of human kind, no.

That's not it, not a concern for him to have.

He thinks of abyssal fish and the water supply of the station, one of the three filters broken down and they are running without a third of their water supply, worse yet is that without the water they can't continue the research about, you guessed it, abyssal fish... Oh, and the food supply is also affected.

“You heard the news?” Sanghyuk deposits the vials and flasks filled with samples on the table as Hongbin asked, fixing his glasses back up his nose.

“What news?” Hongbin is trying to pretend he is not horribly distraught by the sound of the entire structure of their underwater base being slowly moved to another location, the metal carcass wailing like a dying whale as the effects of too much pressure make the entire thing clank and whine.

Some would have thought that after seven years living down here, in the middle of the ocean, in this abyssal adventure, he would be used to the sounds, but he isn't.

Hongbin is a simple biologist, and no matter how utterly enamored he is, of the sea and it's mysteries and every underwater creature they didn't catalog yet, still, the sounds of tormented agonizing souls this base emmits at it makes way from one destination to another always has Hongbin shivering.

“They said there's a new electrical engineer coming, to fix our water filters.” Sanghyuk says as he takes notes on the color changes of the samples they left the other night. He is a multitasking kid, it's great. “I've never heard of him in the list of personnel the company provided us. He is not in the datalog either, I think he works for the private sector.”

“Oh great, another mouth to feed.” He grumbles, placing the paper mask back on and changing the latex gloves before even approaching the microscope. “How delightful.”

“I've heard he's friends with Wonshik.” A pause, as Sanghyuk taps the tip is his pencil on the clipboard. He hums at his own words. “Well maybe not friends, but they conducted a project together.”

“Just the two of them?” Hongbin scrunches his nose. “When you say Wonshik you mean that weirdo from agronomics?”

“Yeah, and yeah. And hey, Wonshik is the one guaranteeing we don't starve down here, you should be more grateful.” Sanghyuk says, bopping him on the back of the head with the clipboard.

Hongbin scoffs. “I _am_ grateful, but he creeps me out.” A sigh. “The new serum didn't slow the bacteria, we'll have to start from scratch.”

Sanghyuk mutters a soft voiced curse under his breath. Well, another all-nighter… How marvelous. “Well, I'm not saying he's the greatest to be around, I'm still not over him saying the intern had pretty elbows-”

“ _Creepy._ ”

“-I’m just saying he is a good guy, and he's good at his job.”

Hongbin throws the gloves in the dispenser before answering to that. “I'm calling him creepy, not incompetent.” Sanghyuk rolls his eyes at that, Hongbin can be such an ass. “Know your words.”

“ _Anyway_. Jesus how obnoxious can you even _be_?” Hongbin gives him a dimpled smile and Sanghyuk squints his eyes at him. “I've heard Hakyeon and him studied together too, not together _together_  but in the same institution. They're not _friends_ or anything but Hakyeon knows him.”

“How very scandalous, Hakyeon having _friends_ , who would have thought.” Hongbin pretends he is shocked and Sanghyuk grunts in sincere, _sincere_ annoyance. No relationship can survive seventeen hours of uninterrupted coexistence, certainly theirs can’t.

The alarm indicating there are people using the front door rings, a loud screech of an alarm that flashes red lights on every room inside the base.

Hongbin hates new personnel because of it, this ruckus makes it look like they'll all die soon, that everything is on fire and they are unavoidably doomed. He _hates_ this alarm.

Regardless he and Sanghyuk leave their positions to go to the front hatch and _greet_ the new resident.

When they finally manage to reach the front, amongst the mess of people showing up as part of the personnel protocol,  the new guy is already removing the wetsuit and helmet and looking amongst the crowd for familiar faces.

Hongbin notices the earring on his left ear and immediately scrunches his nose. _Seriously? An earring? In an underwater base?_

How.

Fashionable.

Woah.

From somewhere among the crowd, emerges Hakyeon, with his arms wide open like some sort of parent coming to greet their children after the dance number at school. “Taekwoonie!” Hongbin doesn't miss the way Taekwoon flinches when Hakyeon's arms wind around him as invasively as he is with any other person in here and Hongbin can't say he doesn't relate to the feeling… regardless the problem is not his. “I'm so glad you came.” He smiles and in return, Taekwoon pats the small of his back awkwardly. When he speaks, Hongbin doesn't hear a word, in fact he is only aware the man spoke because his mouth moves and Hakyeon's face changes.

If Hongbin has his lip reading ability on point, he said something about the pods outside not being able to tolerate the pressure of the place they are in. “I’ll handle it, don't worry. Make yourself at home, I'll ask one of the interns to escort you to your quarters. Everyone back to your positions.”

As everyone leaves, Hongbin notices some of the words leaving Taekwoon's mouth before he and Sanghyuk return to the laboratory too.

_I'd like to start immediately._

Then they leave.

  
  
  


~×~

  
  
  
  


Today Hongbin woke up feeling light-headed, the memo on the panel beside the bed informed they would run with lower oxygen so they could fix the water filter. Hongbin fails to understand how can this two things be related in any way but hey, he is a biologist, he is no expert… That doesn’t calm him, however, as the warning lights of every panel on the living quarters keep blinking red, warning them of oxygen shortage.

Today is also picture day, pictures to update their profile on the datalog (now they have new personnel and goddamnit for that) and pictures of the specimen to be cataloged, the ones they encountered in the last few months. Four, to be specific.

Every four months the cycle goes on again.

So there goes Hongbin, with a camera in hand, walking to the common hall, to take a cup of black tea that tastes horrible but at least has caffeine and take a fucking picture _again_. Hear the exact same joke from the exact same man calling him _dimples_ and he would, this time he _would_ punch that dude in the face with reckless abandon.

But no… No need for that, for before he has the chance of being directed to the small bench and do the picture (cup of tea in hand and all) he is haphazardly pushed to the side by no one less than their new _oh-so-fashionable-electrical-engineer_ , which successfully causes him to not only drop his tea and burn his own hand, but _also_ drop the _fucking camera_ and _break the god forsaken lenses_.

_Here._

_12.000 feet away from any kind of replacement._

And one would think in this kind of predicament, the man would at the very least stop and apologize, which wouldn’t change anything of course, but at least it would show some kind of _decency_.

Oh no, none of that… The man makes a _beeline to Hakyeon instead, not even sparing a single glance over his shoulder and oh…_

_Oh Hongbin had 2 hours of sleep that night and this man, he does_ **_not_ ** _want to mess with him._

He is already following him to Hakyeon, entirely prepared to start a _fight_ but then the words come and the biologist inside him is so much louder than his thirst for public humiliation of this new guy he didn’t give himself the trouble of remembering the name of yet.

“It’s not good, there’s contamination coming in and out.”  Hakyeon places his papers and his customary cup of coffee over the table, eyes leaving Hongbin who had stalked after them like a madman and back at Taekwoon.

He swallows his coffee like he had swallowed on sawdust instead. “What kind of contamination?” Hakyeon asks him, trying to clear his throat for the liquid decided to go partially to his lungs when he swallowed.

“Oil. It’s not a big crack, but enough to create leakage. In exchange we have water coming into the pipes. It’s rusting the interior of the main generator, if we stay here, at this pressure, the entire engine might stop. We might get stranded down here.” Hongbin notices just now the man is slightly out of breath, wearing the top part of his black jumpsuit tied around his waist, the gray shirt he wears underneath is completely soaked on the back, he must have laid under things down in the machine room. “This is not safe, we have to resurface.”

“ _No._ ” Hongbin’s interference seems like a surprise, if anything the man looks at him as if he just noticed he was even there in the first place. “Are you insane? We can’t resurface if we are leaving a trail of contaminated oil behind us, that’s ridiculous.”

“My priority is saving these people.” The man says, what’s his name again? Taeyang? Taehyung?

Hongbin scoffs at him again, blood boiling after not only being pushed, burned and having his equipment damaged, but also told the environment they are in is unimportant. “Well, _mine_ is saving this environment! We won’t depart before this leakage is controlled.”

“I’m head-engineer.”

“I’m head-biologist, you wanna go?” Hongbin raises his hands in disbelief. Squinting his eyes as Tae… Taekwoon? Taekwoon right? As Taekwoon _scowls_ at him.

“I think Hongbin is right, Taekwoon.” Hakyeon finally intervenes. And Taekwoon turns his eyes to him as if he just convinced himself he is surrounded by lunatics. “We can’t resurface until the leakage is controlled, we can’t risk leaving a trail of poison behind us, it’s not an option.”

“You are aware this position of yours not only risks the lives of all the staff and personnel working here but also the possibility of damaging this base beyond the point of salvaging, right?”

“Yes.”

“Are you ready to face the consequences of your actions, regardless of outcome?”

“Yes.”

Taekwoon scoffs a humorless laugh. “You’re all insane.” And then he walks away.

“Where are you going?” Hakyeon calls after his back, but Taekwoon doesn’t answer he simply leaves. Hongbin watches him go with a frown on his face. “Hongbin.” At that his eyes turn back to Hakyeon and his coffee, now lukewarm and as bitter as Hongbin feels right now. “I trust you won’t authorize departure before the leakage is under control. I’ll need you to be tough on him, he is difficult.”

“You don’t say.”

“When you say we are ready to go, we are ready to go. Until then, keep an eye on him for me okay?”

Wait an eye? An eye as in _a babysitter_? Hongbin has actual work to do, actual real important relevant _work as a biologist_ to do. “Wait, what?”

“Not many are willing to pick a fight with Taekwoon as you just did, he is absurdly headstrong and extremely childish, just like you.” Hongbin makes a face and Hakyeon gives him a sympathetic smile. “They say you can’t die from your own poison.”

“Yeah, but what if I kill him first?”

“Hongbin…” That sigh was a signal Hakyeon would soon become extremely mad and not only chain him to the machine room with Mr.Engineer, but also keep him away from his actual research.

And _that_ , Hongbin could never survive.

“ _Fine._ ” And with that he leaves, mumbling his dissatisfaction under his breath and completely ignoring the picture he was supposed to take today.

Good, now he had to go and do shit with the Big Bad Wolfengineer, marvelous.

Yes, he was ready, entirely ready.

In fact he could go _right now_ , he is so _very willing_  to blow off some steam and maybe punch that asshole in the face with the same reckless abandon he was saving for the picture-guy, the main difference being it took picture-guy six years to get to this point whereas Taekwoon took six _minutes._

Fuck that guy.

Fuck that guy real hard.


	2. Chapter 2

From all the discomfort and humiliation they said he would have to face, living underwater, always running on restrictions, shortages, life-threatening crises and all kinds of rationings, Hongbin never thought there would be a day where he would be stopped from doing his job, the job they paid him to do, in detriment to this insanity, supervisioning an adult as if this could do them any good.

Of course, the Big Bad Wolfengineer would ignore him infinitely and work. He didn't seem like much of a talker. Either way Hongbin was not interested in talking to him even if he was, but without any attempt at conversation he had no excuses to be a hostile little shit and put all his sass into good use, which was a shame.

He could glare though, that is entirely permitted even in silence, even as Taekwoon walks around, carrying some heavy boxes with tools and spare parts. “You broke my camera lenses, you know.” Finally, Hongbin speaks.

“Why would you bring a camera to the dining hall? Are you the kind to take pictures of your own food?” Taekwoon asks, and Hongbin is not sure if he meant it as a joke, but having in mind they are not friends he takes it as an insult instead.

Because yes, he is the kind to take pictures of food and that shouldn't be a crime. “I was working, I had to take pictures for my catalog. Now I can't, because of you.”

“Sorry.” Taekwoon doesn't even stop working to say that, he isn't even paying attention and man doesn't that make it worse.

“You're just trying to shut me up, you don't even mean it.” He squints his eyes at the man's back but this time Taekwoon does look over his shoulder, a carefully composed expression of neutrality… is he doing that just to spite him?

“Is it working?”

“ _No_.”

“Think of it that way, if you let me work then I might actually _do_ my job and take us to the surface where you can get a new– What was it? A camera? That. You can go back to being happy with your fishes.” That's actually more words than he said in the last hour, Hongbin would impressed if he wasn't offended. “But judging by your face you probably won't.”

“You're no even _looking_ at my face to know.”

“There's mirrors on the ceiling.” Taekwoon says, sliding under one of the machines, causing Hongbin to look at the ceiling but there's nothing there. “You actually looked didn't you?”

For a moment, Hongbin wishes he was crushed by their heating system. He really does. “Childish, extremely childish. Actually I don't have _words_ to describe–”

“But you do. You have a lot of words.” Taekwoon slides from under the machine, there's oil on his face. “That's why you keep talking, right? You want the last word, you can have it. I'm not interested anyway.”

“Oh no, don't you _dare_ treat me like you are doing me a _favor_ and letting me win this discussion, I don't need this.” Hongbin groans. “I can easily win this myself.” But Taekwoon says nothing, nothing at all, he mindfully keeps working. “Jesus fucking Christ you are _intolerable_!”

But nope, there is only silence.  “Oh god I'm gonna have a stroke locked down here with you.”

“Or you could go to the lab do what tree huggers such as yourself do and wait till I say you can come and check if we're good to go.” Taekwoon scoffs, pushing the hair out of his face. “I don't know why you're here.”

“Tree hu– _now_ you decide I'm worthy being spoken to?”

“Well, I'm not deaf, just not interested.”

The strangled noise of utter and complete anger might not sound manly, actually it sounds like a squeal, but Hongbin is already under too much strain and he _cannot pretend_ he is in any condition to be here, sitting around this _obnoxious excuse of a functional human_ or he wouldn't survive the day.

The _day_ , not even the rest of the week, no, we are talking about this particular _day._

“Screw you!” Hongbin is up to his feet and Taekwoon has the audacity of _humming_ at him in response, of actually seriously saying _mm_ and that's _it_.

Hongbin leaves not a second later.

Or he would surely commit a crime.

But if he commits a crime, would anyone ever catch him?

Questions.

A question that follows him for the rest of the day.

Until at some point, Sanghyuk decides to comment the aggressions he has been committing upon the apple he proposed himself to cut for their food break.

Hongbin has been quiet this last few hours, he didn't even greet their resident jellyfishes when he walked in, as it's usual of him.

Now he’s stabbing an apple.

Good Lord what happened down there. “Hongbin you're scaring the fishes, what's up?”

“It's that fucking engineer.” He groans and Hongbin is not really known for groaning, he is known for sass and judgemental stares. If the new guy has him groaning they must be already fifty shades of disgust deep into each other. Sanghyuk is aware he could voice his own jokes out but instead he opts for keeping it to himself and telling Jaehwan later.

_It sounds safer._

“You barely spent two hours with him.” Sanghyuk throws the gloves into the dispenser along with the used flasks and cotton. “How come you're sculpting your food because of him already?”

“He–”

“Hey, Kong.” Someone's at the door, someone Hongbin barely recognizes as part of the medical staff. Something happened? “Hakyeon asked to call you up to his office. He said it's important.”

“Oh, woah, what a timing.” Sanghyuk says. “It seems like it's all the time we have for this week Mr.Lee, I'll see you next Thursday.”

“It's Friday, you jerk.”

“I find it charming that you consider it more important to correct me on this then the fact that I implied I'm your therapist.”

“Kong.” The person by the door calls again. “Now.”

“ _Fine_. Jesus fuck is he dying? If so I don't want to be there, I hate funerals.” He throws the rest of the apple in the dispenser too, the last apple they had on board, following this partial stranger out of the lab.

“Yeah, very funny. Let's go.”

“And call me Dr.Lee. I'm not your friend for you to call me _Kong_.” The man looks over his shoulder, a brow arched, Hongbin has the finesse of mimicking the action but not saying anything else.

People should know he is not friendly.

It was extremely annoying that everyone around seemed to take his face as an indicator whether they could be all touchy feely with him or not, all intimacy and nicknames. The main excuse being he had some “funny quirks” that made him seem _approachable_ as they put it. _Quirks_ they say, like shaking his head to put his fringe back in place, an habit he got from college, having his hands occupied most of the time as he did. It's called adaptation, it happens.

People don't think he is approachable anymore. It's called adaptation… it happens.

They make the rest of the way in silence, with Hongbin regretting not bringing his apple and maybe the knife he was using to peel it. He could need it, who knows, this are dire times they are living in. “Hongbin.” Hakyeon says with a smile, sitting by the table beside (yes, of course) they're oh-so-charming-head-engineer.

“What do you need, Hakyeon?”

“Taekwoon had a proposition and I wanted to know your opinion.” Hakyeon taps his pen over the table and beside him, Taekwoon sits as if he own the place, legs crossed and hands over the armrest of the chair. Besides fashionable he seems to be elegant too, how blessed they are, oh my.

“No.” Taekwoon looks at him then, with that same insulted scowl he had on before and Hongbin scoffs in defiance because that's something he would do. Being defiant.

“Are you serious?” Hakyeon blinks at him, probably thinking he and Taekwoon had discussed the possibility already. But they didn't, they didn't discuss anything.

“Nah, go on.” He smiles back at Hakyeon then, he feels a little better now so that's good. Hands stuffed into his lab coat he leans closer the table, a drawing of the base and some annotations in red spread on top of it.

“Explain it to him what you just told me, Taekwoon.” Hakyeon leans back as Taekwoon lean in, he closes his eyes to her the entire thing again, or maybe rest.

Hakyeon needs to rest.

“No matter what kind of fixing I do outside, it wouldn’t last the entire way up. The water outside is pressing on the walls so the structure becomes… um… _smaller_ so to speak,” Surprisingly, Hongbin only listens, perhaps because the sight of Taekwoon struggling with his words amuses him, it’s a possibility. “It's like a balloon, if you glue a sticker into a balloon and then blow it, the sticker will come off as the surface where it was placed expands beneath it. It's a similar idea. The tools we have on board won't work under this much pressure.” Taekwoon motions an area circled in red in the drawing, must be where the crack is. “I cannot make a long lasting fix.”

“So what? Are you saying we can't resurface without leakage?”

“No. If I was saying that, then I would say that, are you deaf?” Hongbin gives him an unimpressed look, it almost makes Taekwoon smile, that fucker. “As I was saying, my idea is to make my fixings on the surface of the structure from the outside anyway, like this I can estimate how long they will last and repeat the process on our way up. We would have to stop either way for decompression, so it wouldn't change much.”

“We have only one pod inside this base adapted to high pressure… And it's the one from the biology lab, that's why you called me... you manipulative prick.” Hongbin can't say he is surprised, but he can't say he is happy either, that part however may be caused by Taekwoon's face in general and not the situation itself. Regardless that would put a definitive stop to his research, at least for now... thinking on the other hand it was better than to risk contamination on their way up. “Fine.”

“Easy like that?” Taekwoon looks mildly surprised, maybe even disappointed if he was to speculate. He isn't speculating.

“Easy like that. I can't risk contamination, not even for the sake of the work of my life.” A sigh, saying this out loud made it sound so real, it doesn't sit well with him. “Take the pod. Is that all?” This time the question is for Hakyeon, sitting back with both hands over his knees in thought like a silent overlord.

“Yes.”

“Then I will warn the rest of the staff down in the labs. Excuse me.”

As he walks out, Hongbin has the vague impression he is being watched, which he most definitely is… Big Bad Wolfengineer seemed be surprised.

A shame, he doesn’t know Hongbin at all.

Or he would know Hongbin's morals cannot be bent in anyway. A headstrong man, as Hakyeon often puts it.

Not having his research to work on anymore does not translate to him being motionless in his room for the rest of the trip, maybe to the majority of the staff working at the lab it does, but not to Hongbin, oh no.

It goes like this.

One of the filters they still had is vetoed from use by Wonshik (the resident creepy guy) after considering the possibility of that filter being in contact with the leakage, which if he was to be fair, was very likely to be true, and sure that would be a problem if Hongbin still had his research to worry about... But as previously stated he doesn’t. Instead he has an ungodly amount of free time he spends writing instead of sleeping (as previously stated too) writing every and all informations he was able to gather for further analysis and decoupage later on, even the irrelevant bits.

Hongbin has a very good memory after all, one of the perks of being a bitter rancorous bastard. Oh well.

“Hey, King Kong aren’t you going to sleep? Like ever again?” Sanghyuk calls from the other side of the room, and yeah, he says that but he is also awake and being a relentless workaholic just as much as Hongbin.

“Don’t call me that.” He can’t afford to turn away from his notebook to answer. If everything went to shit, his research would remain safe, he would surely go as far as _Camões_ and leave the love of his life to drown just to save this work.

And the _only reason_ why Hongbin _ever took_ those online literature classes was to know about this _one fact about portuguese literature and forget about literally everything else. He can relate to Camões on a very personal level though, Camões knows what’s up._

_Camões has priorities in life and that’s a trait Hongbin aspires to have._

_Role model goals._

_Damn he has being awake for too many hours now, hasn’t he?_

“How long have we been here?” He asks, finally forcing his fingers away from the keyboard to close his red eyes and _blink_. His eyes water when he does, and he regrets doing in immediately, it wasn’t stinging before, _fuck_.

Sanghyuk stills in his motions to think about it, placing flasks into the gigantic refrigerator they have on the back on the room. “Ten hours? I guess?” A pause. “Well, my knees are a little wobbly so I guess it’s more than six.”

“It’s been ten hours since we last _ate?_ Oh man, my grandma would be so pissed with me if she knew.” He leans back on the chair and his bones start clicking back in place one after the other, it’s the sound of Hongbin’s future as an old man with many regrets and multiple types of pain on every part of his body. “What time is it?”

“Late. Way too late.” Sanghyuk says, halfway inside the fridge, placing things on their appropriate shelves. “Wanna hit the kitchen and get a toast? I just noticed I’m starving.”

“Just noticed?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t thinking about any of this before.” Hongbin wishes, he really does, that he could say he doesn’t _know what the fuck that means_ but he does. He knows exactly what he means for he is just the same.

The thought of toast seems rather pleasing actually, and he hates toast.

That must be a sign.

So there goes Sanghyuk and him, walking through dark hallways carrying a flashlight as if they are in some trash horror movie. The constant blinking light of the hallway panels telling they are running on less oxygen and water than the optimal amount only makes it worse, nothing says _safe_ like many LED screens flashing the word WARNING in bold blinking red.

_Feels like home for sure._

“Not even six months in since the last resurface and this place is already malfunctioning.” Hongbin clicks his tongue, Sanghyuk is graceful enough to hum a drained _tell me about it_ , considering how tired he looks that's commendable of him. “I swear one of this days this shit is gonna sink for real.”

“I don’t doubt. But hey, we have the new engineer-earring-guy to help us now.” Sanghyuk says, touching at the walls out of reflex as they make their way upstairs to the kitchen.

Hongbin is too tired to fake a sardonic laugh so he only scoffs at the mention of Taekwoon in their perfectly casual conversation. “I feel so much safer now.”

“I bet you do.” Sanghyuk chuckles after him.

Surprisingly the kitchen lamp is already lit up, and there’s voices coming from inside. Hongbin’s first instinct is to turn back and go to his room, such is the intensity of his desire to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with anyone from any other section aside his own. Hongbin has, admittedly, the social skills of a flower vase.

Very pretty, very bland, and _preferably_ , very silent too.

They go inside either way, but Sanghyuk goes first.

And guess _who it is that’s inside this particular place at this particular time?_

_Yes, yes of course it’s Hongbin’s two favourite people in the whole base._

_The resident creepy guy and his lovely friend the fashionable-but-also-intolerable-engineer._

“Oh, good evening you two.” Wonshik is at least amiable, in that creepy awkward way of his. Taekwoon only sips his coffee in silence.

“Don’t you ever sleep?” Hongbin asks with a very slight frown as Sanghyuk greets them nicely because he is nice.

“Look who’s talking darling.” Taekwoon shots back, placing the cup down and licking his lips as if it’s normal for him to calling Hongbin _darling_.

“ _Excuse me?_ ” Wonshik looks between them and Sanghyuk goes handle the toasts, that’s why they came after all. For toasts. “ _Darling?_ ”

“Um… Taekwoon.” Wonshik looks exasperated. “I don’t think this is-”

“No.” Taekwoon sighs, his voice softens when he speaks again. “I’m going back to work. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Have some sleep.”

Taekwoon brushes past Hongbin and Hongbin is openly scowling, eyes following Taekwoon as he walks into the dark, the outlines of him blinking on and off with the red lights of the panels.

Wonshik walks after him a second later, he looks somewhat distressed but Hongbin can’t say why, can’t say he cares about the reason either. He hears the steps fading away, and only when he cannot hear them anymore he turns to Sanghyuk, just to see him looking at him with that look on his face he usually only ever shows when he thinks Hongbin is being unreasonable without wanting to meddle. “What? You think he’s right? Calling me fucking _darling_ as if he has any right to do so.”

“Honestly?”

“You do don’t you?”

“I think you’re overreacting. I get you don’t like the dude, but let's be professional here man.”

At that Hongbin scoffs. “I–”

“Whatever dude, I’m not your mom.” Sanghyuk sighs then, placing the toasts on a plate. “I’m going ahead, okay? See you tomorrow to finish cataloging everything. ‘Night.”

Well what now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all that left kudos and for Jbjsjmjkshjy07 for the feedback :)  
> This will be... a slow crash and burn I guess?


	3. Chapter 3

He goes after them, thinking why would he ever give himself the trouble to run after someone if this someone is just some stranger he just met and doesn’t like all that much if he was to be honest. Maybe Sanghyuk’s words bothered him, maybe he is running because never had he being called _unprofessional_ before by anyone, and _that_ irks him more than he cares to admit.

The sound of his own steps echo and the blinking red lights make him feel like he is being chased, when he isn’t, when there’s no one down here other than him, his bioluminescent poisonous jellyfishes, Taekwoon and maybe Wonshik too. “You have to stop that Taekwoon.”

Hongbin’s steps come to a halt, he stills, suddenly afraid of being caught, of being seen… Why would he? “I’m tired.” That’s Taekwoon’s voice, and he sounds… he sounds exhausted.

It can’t all be because of him, can it? They barely even spoke. “I know… I know and that’s why I asked Hakyeon to bring you in. You need time away… This place is good, it will help you cool off.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” _Sarcasm_ , that’s something Hongbin can identify clearly, even in the dark, even if he can’t see Taekwoon’s face from where he stands, hiding ( _Hiding?_ ) behind this metal bars.

“I mean it. You’re not alone here, none of us think you’re guilty.”

“What does it matter if you don’t think I’m guilty Shik? You _know_ me, you _know_ I wouldn’t fuck up like that. I’m impulsive but I’m not sloppy, and _radiation?_ If I had anything to do with that I wouldn’t be able to _sleep_ , I _don’t_ already and I didn’t even had anything to do with that bullshit.”

“ _I know_. You were the scape goat man, but you gotta keep it cool. You punched your superior dude, that’s not something they are gonna overlook.”

“I would punch him again if I could.”

“Keep it together. I trust you’ll excel in your task, you always do.” Silence, maybe Taekwoon sighing. “And about Hongbin… He’s as much of a rock as you are, don’t front him, it won’t help.”

“If you think I will let him strut his fucking sass around and think I’ll be his bitch you better fucking forget it, I’m not _you_.”

Silence.

This time it lasts.

“I’ll leave you to your thoughts. Talk to me once you’ve cooled out.”

Steps, closer to where he was, Hongbin shrinks closer to the metal bars. “Shikkie.” The steps all stop and Hongbin exhales, it doesn’t feel right… creeping in the dark like this. “You shouldn’t let him step all over you like that, I’ve been here for less than two days and I already heard of the things he says about you.”

“I don’t care about that.”

“But you do. I know you do, you care.”

“I won’t start a fucking fight, Taekwoon.”

“I would be cool with that if I didn’t knew what this does to you.”

“I can handle myself. We’re not in highschool anymore.”

“A shame. You had some fight in you back then.”

“Yeah, I can see how _fighting_ has done your wonders for your career.”

Silence again.

Wonshik is the first to crack it seems. “Listen… I didn’t mean to–”

“Go to bed, Wonshik. You’ve helped enough for one day already.”

“... Goodnight, Taekwoon.”

Wonshik leaves, he walks right past Hongbin and Hongbin swallows on nothing because thank _god_ he hasn’t seen him, he hears Taekwoon cursing under his breath, his ears much more keen now in the darkness.

He slips away in rushed steps.

He shouldn’t have come here at all.

He saw something he shouldn’t have and now?

Now there was nothing he could say.

_Had he… Had he really done what Taekwoon said he did?_

_You shouldn’t let him step all over you like that._

_Had he really?_

Now there’s guilt… How can he deal with it? With guilt?

He doesn’t know.

For now all he can do… is run…

And hide.

Like the coward he is.

  
 

~+~

  
  
 

Alas today was a day for him to walk down to the machine room and get the memory card from their pod, and –by the graceful interference of fate– be forced to see Taekwoon again, as he is the one conducting adaptations. He wasn’t, however, all that sure he was _ready_ to see Taekwoon after the previous night.

 _No one else could come down here_ , no, because apparently, they thought Taekwoon to be (as they put it) _oddly intimidating_. Ten minutes of excuses later, Hongbin got tired of waiting for someone to got get the damn parts for him to continue writing and right into _Imma go get this shit myself y'all a bunch of loser what the fuck_.

That didn’t, in any way, make him less shaky or less nervous as he approached the double doors.

_You shouldn’t let him step all over you like that._

_Shit._

And to make it even better, Sanghyuk was sick after eating something he shouldn't have along with the toast he had. He said it was jam and Hongbin promptly reminded him (through the interphone) they had no jam on board. He hasn't thought about it since then, for the sake of his already compromised sanity. Frankly he didn't know how he managed to get any work done before Sanghyuk's arrival at the base.

The machine room was weirdly stuffy today, probably because the only filter left was overwhelmed with work and probably overheating. That could pose an explanation as to why Taekwoon was wearing a tank top whereas the entire rest of the base had at least one coat on. Air conditioning was a thing that happened and Hongbin was very grateful for, but at least in this heat, he would have an excuse in case he started sweating.

But surprisingly, Taekwoon isn't working, he is lying over some metal table beside the heater, normally used to deposit machinery and tools.

“Aside from being obtrusive, what are you doing?” Hongbin comments, being as conversational as possible. It would be suspicious if he suddenly became a nicer person wouldn’t it? But like this he is feeling even guiltier… _Fuck, there’s no winning is there?_

“Resting.” Taekwoon says, he sounds tired, that kind of breathless exhaustion people experience when they push the limits of hours they believe they can spend awake.

Hongbin is no stranger to the feeling. “I… Uh, came to fetch the video recordings of the pod and the memory card...”

“It's in that box there.” he points a wooden box in the corner of the room, he had the decency of leaving it away from the wet floor and away from the heating equipment. It was more than Hongbin had hoped for.

Taekwoon had those dark circles under his eyes men with purpose usually have when they are trying to figure things out. “You look like literal trash.” Taekwoon shoots him a tired, but undoubtedly annoyed glance. “I mean, you should rest. You won't be of any use if you tire yourself into unconsciousness.”

“Talking from experience?”

“I'm a scientist, I don't give opinion on things I haven't tested yet.” That's the most civilized conversation they had since… Since ever, honestly. That’s kinda sad. “Are you stupid?” Or is it?

Surprisingly, instead of flaring to the insult, Taekwoon scoffs a smirk, one that speaks of mockery. “Is it physically painful for you not to be unpleasant at all times?” The second part he mutters and Hongbin notices he pouts a little to do so. “You're like the Grinch or something...” If he didn't knew any better he would say he is trying to act cute.

But he is well aware Taekwoon wouldn’t _try_ to be cute.

“Stop muttering and go to sleep. Jaehwan gets really loud when people faint and I don't want to deal with that.” He walks to the other side of the room, to get his box and get out. “And don't sleep here or you'll die or something, don't want to deal with police either.”

“Yeah, if I was to die I would sure try to frame you.” Taekwoon scoffs again, from the other side of the room.

“Screw you, Jung Taekwoon.”

And then he leaves.

Well, this was relatively painless.

Key word being _relatively_.

He comes back to the lab feeling slightly less angry. Possibly because Taekwoon hasn’t been outwardly aggressive with him when Hongbin most definitely expected him to be.

Most of Hongbin's bitterness was due to sleep deprivation, incompetent peers and the horrible black tea they served in the cafeteria. He wasn’t really a _bad guy_ so when people got, you know, _explicitly miserable_ because of him it was natural he became… Uh, careful.

The other part this whole equation was the miasma of darkness and anger he has encrusted into his heart, his dimples were given to him by the devil so he could escape through mostly anything by being _pretty_. That still didn’t meant he wanted to make people sad. It was a little childish to think he could have both but it still surprised him that people took his words to heart when he was… Well, him.

“Dr.Lee?” Some of the interns approach him and he notices he has been staring at the screen of his notebook without doing anything for over five minutes now. “Should I continue sorting the things Dr.Han left unfinished yesterday?"

“If you touch his things he will take everything out and start over. I don't recommend.” He starts typing after taking a moment to clear his throat, as if he was thinking about something of actual relevance and not vacantly staring at his own reflection staring back at him on the black screen of his notebook. “Have anyone fed the jellyfishes? Or checked the pressure inside the tank? Or went around looking for some spare lenses so we can take pictures and update the god forsaken datalog?”

“I guess not sir.”

“Then…” he makes a motion for him to go and do just that. “And stop calling me _sir_ I'm not your father, what the hell.”

“Uh, of course Dr.Lee…” the kid makes a point at bowing twice before going to attend to his obligations, muttering a confused _excuse me_ under his breath.

Hongbin doesn't consider himself _scary_. Of course he is tall and all but that doesn't make him scary, actually he always found himself the most non-threatening person around at any given time. He has some big eyes, some long lashes, he dresses like a teenager and the only actually manly trait he has is his jawline. The rest looks oddly… pubescent.

His sisters always tell him he looks the exact same since he was sixteen. And he believes them, they sure look at him way more than he looks at himself. It’s not possible his sixteen year old self was this unrelentless _beast_ of terror and destruction and he never even knew about it.

He always found it weird how people find him _intimidating_ when he is not actually actively trying to be. He is sure he would look ridiculous if he did try either way… He used to be considered cute when he was in highschool and most of the girl around thought he was _boyfriend_ material or something along those lines because he used to get so much chocolate in valentines day his sister would call him _casanova_ for five days straight and he would cringe immensely every time.

“Beanie.” ... _There is only one person that speaks like that_. And judging by the fact that the voice is coming from the lab speakers, he is already sure of what's coming. “It's Jyannie from the infirmary. Can you come by please and thank you.”

Giving Jaehwan access to the internal speakers was a mistake. And he barely finished this one page too… It seemed like this would be a slow day. “ _Beanie~ Talk to me._ I need to know you're listening.”

“Uh… sir?”

“I won't play around with the interphone system like Jaehwan does.” Hongbin says, leaving his lab coat on the back of the chair. “No one touches my stuff 'till I get back,” he says on his way to the door. “And stop calling me _sir_ for Christ sake.”

If Hongbin looks like a teenager, Jaehwan is a toddler.

Full lips, clothes disproportionately bigger than what’s appropriated, the whole set. A toddler.

People around here (especially the resident nurses) find him handsome, cheerful and friendly. Hongbin finds him loud and kind of funny he supposes. They don’t really spend all that much time together, if anything Jaehwan is more Sanghyuk’s friend than his own, and the few times he _did_ spend more than the obligatory 15 minutes it takes for him to take his monthly shots was because Sanghyuk somehow mediated the whole encounter.

Hongbin is not exactly a hermit, but when he isn’t working, he is thinking of work, and when he isn’t working _or_ thinking of work he is sleeping. He keeps his passion for his job to himself and others like him.

He sincerely doubts anyone would want to hear him speak about the simple complexity of jellyfishes and how adaptable they were and the whole plethora of fascinating information there is about it. And he could talk for _days._

All in all, Hongbin likes to talk, but he is a rather limited human.

“Hongbinnie, hello.” Jaehwan smile, that bright, obfuscating, overly amiable smile of his that makes Hongbin a little awkward.

“Uh… Hi. What’s up?” He stuffs his hands inside the lab coat and plays aimlessly with the multiple pen caps he keeps there for no real reason other than he forgets to return them to their destinated pens after use.

“Hyuk’s fine.” He seems to think better of his words a second later after finishing the sentence. “I mean, he could be worse. Food poisoning. Nothing unusual, some vomit, some cramps, lots of whining. The usual.” He says, with a casual hum, he is one to ramble. “I’m afraid he will be in no condition to assist you for the next few days.”

“Yeah, sure. He needs to rest, I wouldn’t want him working if he’s sick.” One of the pen caps falls off his pockets and he pointedly pretends not to notice anything.

Jaehwan bows down to pick it up anyway. “I’m sure you wouldn’t. He was the one to request your presence.” He extends the pen cap for Hongbin to take and Hongbin stuffs into his other pocket with a mumbled _thank you_ Jaehwan smiles at.

“Uh… Why though?”

“Well, I don’t know. Go speak talk to him, he has been whining all morning because of it, it’s really annoying. He’s in the third row on the left side.” With that Jaehwan leaves, walking to another side of the room to talk to one of the nurses who comes pushing a girl on a wheelchair towards the check in area.

And Hongbin is left to his own devices, to find the third row on the left side… Find Sanghyuk holding a bucket with so much devotion it looks like the thing is actually his first born… He is a little yellowish and covered in a not so thin layer of cold sweat. “Oh my god, are you dying?”

“I feel like I am. I can almost see the light, Hongbin.” He complains way too dramatically, eyes closed like he just resigned to his certain and unavoidable death.

Hongbin slaps his arms lightly. “Stop that.”

“Would you cry for me if I died?”

“You called me here to ask if I would cry if you died?” Hongbin frowns but there is no real bite in his words, he can’t bring himself to be rude to sick people. He can’t. Not even Sanghyuk.

Sanghyuk hums, sniffing with a face that says nausea hasn’t left him yet. Poor soul. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to help. I feel bad for leaving you alone.”

“Dude, what? You have to rest. I _don’t want_ you working like this.”

“Thanks… It means a lot.”

“I can’t see why.” He takes a sit by the bed and Sanghyuk sniffs again, not because he is crying (and god forbid that) but because sickness makes him likes this, eyes watery, muscles sore, nose running. The picture of a body trying to self destruct. “Just rest, I’m fine on my own.”

“How are you handling all the interns? Are they driving you insane already?” Sanghyuk asks, very conversational for a man that looks like was recovering from yellow fever.

For the lack of any positive words to give, he only hums. It’s not like the interns are completely _useless,_ they simply aren’t used to how Hongbin operates and how he likes things to go and where he keeps things and how he organizes the equipment. _Inexperienced_ is a better word, but they stress him out either way.

“They are, aren’t they?”

“They are young... and scared, and constantly asking questions. I feel like I’m talking to puppies, they are too eager to please and if I move too fast they startle and run away.” Hongbin sighs, looking at the grey stains on the ceiling. “Do you think I’m scary, Sanghyuk?”

“Not really, but then again I never did. I don’t know how others see you.”

Of course he can’t, no one can. Hongbin hums because he has nothing to add and Sanghyuk pats his knee placatingly, he is well acquainted with the struggles Hongbin lives trying not to be an inconsiderate sarcastic bastard and push people away. He is the softest porcupine Sanghyuk knows.

The most bitter…

And sassiest…

And stressed…

Porcupine.

Porcupines have soft bellies.

Hongbin has soft insides.

He is a porcupine.

“I should go back to work.”

“Have you eaten anything today?” Sanghyuk asks as Hongbin pushes himself to his feet and straightens his lab coat.

The thing Hongbin’s face does when he mentions food is a mix between guilt and realization. “No.”

“You should.”

“I guess… I should go get something then.” A sigh, that sigh Hongbin only ever does when he about to do something he would passionately want to avoid but can’t. “I have so much to do...”

“Get some biscuits. I heard Hoseok did some today.” Sanghyuk tells him, snuggling further against the pillows of the bed. It doesn’t seem all the comfortable honestly, but Sanghyuk doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.

Well, Hongbin already saw this kid sleep while standing so… “Would you like some too? I can bring it here.”

“Nah, they wouldn’t stay inside me for long.”

“Gross.”

“Good luck.”

“Thank you I guess.”

As Hongbin leaves he can hear Sanghyuk yelling after his back a loud and unnecessary _Don’t do anything illegal_ Hongbin purposefully ignores deciding once he goes back to the lab, he will put all the pen caps back where they belong...

_In the fucking trash can for fucks sake._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> double update~


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a double update, don't forget to read the previous chapter

This biscuits are nice.

Hongbin is less miserable by the time he reaches the lab carrying a bunch of them in a jar for Hoseok said he is too thin and has to _eat_. It makes him think of his grandmother, it's been a long time since he saw her, he hopes she is well.

It also makes him think he hasn’t seen Taekwoon in the communal hall when he walked in, so maybe… Maybe he hasn’t eaten yet?

Of course it’s none of his business and he is –for all ends and purposes– an extremely busy man, but that doesn't mean he simply forgot all about what he saw just the other night or even the fact that he almost threw himself behind the nearest pillar (and it's a miracle he didn't do that) when Wonshik passed him by, accompanied by his other...Uh… friends? Colleagues?

 _People_ _that work with him whatever_.

It seems like he has no problem speaking his mind (even when nobody asked for an opinion) but saying he's sorry is oh-ho too much.

“Hey, Lee, they are calling you from the office, pick up the interphone for Christ's sake.” This voice (someone Hongbin barely recognizes as _researcher Park_ ) snaps him out of his daze, still holding a half eaten biscuit and staring into nothing for extensive periods of time as he is known for doing.

If Park noticed (and he was just _passing by the hallway_ ) who knows how long it's been.

He didn't even _hear_ the interphone. “Laboratory, Dr.Lee speaking. What is it?”

“Finally, what were you doing?” _Hakyeon… Well, shit._

“I was eating.” It's technically not a lie, but is also not completely true either. “Sorry. What do you need me for?”

“Nothing urgent. If it was we would be damned already.” _Oh, Hakyeon you cheeky bastard._ “One of your interns came to my office asking for spare lenses. Is it for that camera you dropped the other day?”

“No. It's for the camera _Taekwoon_ dropped the other day. Pushing me around like I'm some disposable plastic bag that rude pri–” _Calm down._ “Uh… anyway. Sorry, I… yeah. What do you need?”

“We may have a spare. Are you okay Kong? You never stop mid-rant like that, are you finally being threatened?”

“No… and what do you mean by _finally_?”

“You're an intolerable prickly salty kid, Kong. That's what I mean.” Hakyeon sighs. “Are you sure you're not being threatened? Are you dying?”

“That's not appropriate.”

“If I cared about properness I would have fired you five years ago when you threw hot tea on that guy’s crotch.”

“He touched my ass.”

“I know darling, I'm not criticizing.”

“Then what's your point?”

“You're nagging again.”

“I'm not–”

“ _Yes_. Yes you are.” Then. “I think I can get some new lenses for you. I will send them to you in a few, wait for it. If anything goes wrong I'll call again. Now I gotta go, my fingers are hurting from pressing the damn intercom. Go back to work.”

And then silence.

Well there's that.

He stares at his own reflection in one of the tanks for a few seconds. The jellyfishes swim around aimlessly as the brainless sea creatures they are. Sometimes Hongbin wishes he was a brainless sea creature too.

When he was in college, one of the girls he casually hooked up with used to tell him he was just like the jellyfishes he (already) was so enamored of. At the time he wondered if she was calling him stupid or primitive.

None seemed all that flattering.

Now as a certified biologist living underwater adventures in an abyssal base, he could notice what she meant… or he thought he did.

“Am I a prickly salty kid?”

“Dr.Lee?”

The intern on question looks down at Hongbin's shoes as Hongbin looks up, still mulling over his internal conflicts. “Yeah?”

“They're calling you up to the greenhouse. They mentioned something about the supervisor owning some spare lenses we could use.”

The… supervisor… of the greenhouse?

That's Wonshik.

_Shit._

“And let me guess, _I_ have to be the one who goes up there to get it?”

“Well you're the only one with a pass code to the internal doors–” He is quick to notice how casual he sounds saying that. “Uh...Sir?”

Hongbin groans. “I’m twenty six. Why you keep calling me _sir_?” He sounds only whiny now. But desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

A knock on the door.

Taekwoon.

Dirtying the white walls with his oil-covered fingers. “What's the code for manual operation of the pod? Hakyeon said you're the only one who knows it.” He looks mildly disheveled, and Hongbin can swear he hears one of the interns gasp.

But… Why would they gasp though?

“Yeah. Forgot about that.” He scrunches his nose despite himself. “The wall.”

Taekwoon has the decency of muttering a little _sorry_ as he rubs the hem of his tank top at the stain left by his own fingers. Successfully smearing the black blob of burnt oil in an ugly patch. “Just leave it. Let's go, you'll need my fingerprint. Have you eaten?”

“What?”

“What part you need explanation for?” He pushes the jar of biscuits into Taekwoon's hands before starting his way down the hallway. He must sound grumpy but that's the less… uh… less unfriendly he can make himself look as of now.

It's a start.

For him that is.

The sound of Taekwoon munching eases part of his nervousness, but the sight of him picking biscuits with his tongue doesn't. He is once again reminded Taekwoon's hands are all covered in oil and thus incapable of holding any biscuits on his own. “Is there anything else you need? I want to at least finish this page of my report and I can't do it if I'm interrupted every 6 seconds.”

“Not that I know.” Taekwoon's voice sounds a little softer than usual, as if the biscuits had him pacified. For now. “Who made these?”

“Hoseok. He works at the kitchen.” He turns to the pod and opens the panel, Taekwoon is suddenly there, behind him, looming like a creep. Hongbin can hear him munching right beside his ears, that's how close he is. “ _Woah there,_ stranger danger.” He looks over his shoulder and Taekwoon takes two steps back, fishing another biscuit with his tongue.

This man what the hell?

“The code is 0524 nothing too magical. I will-” _Welcome back, Dr.Lee,_ says the voice on the pod. “Enable the manual command and unlocked default settings. Is that good enough?” Taekwoon nods for his mouth is full and he doesn't want to spit half eaten biscuits all over the place. Hongbin is silently glad about that for all it’s worth.

He is on his way out when Taekwoon hums in reminder of something Hongbin is unaware of. Then he swallows and Hongbin sees, he _sees_ he almost chokes but he doesn't comment on it. “Wait for a bit.” Taekwoon tells him with a beckoning gesture of his hands, urging Hongbin to step away from the door. “I need to check for inner protocols. It will take just a minute.” He clears his throat, he should drink something… There’s this one crumble on the corner of his mouth and it's bugging him a lot.

But in a second he is turning to the pod again and crouching down next to it. Hongbin can see he is the kind to have dips on the small of his back, he can see it through the lifted hem of his tank top. “Why are you the one doing everything? I always thought electrical engineers only messed around with computers and shit.”

“This is a computer in broad terms.” Taekwoon tells him, cutting wire and ripping plastic pieces without much thought. It makes Hongbin's heart ache a little… His poor research pod. “I'm specialized in naval technology.”

“You worked for the army?”

“Not since they became a privatized entity. I never believed that crap about how the severance from the Federation would do good for human rights and shit.” He says and Hongbin hums in agreement, he also never bought that bullshit. But many did. “When the fundamentalists took over I decided enough was enough and signed up to the first underwater program I could find. At least down here I don't have to see the shit they spew over on the internet and on the portables.”

Again. Hongbin can empathize with the feeling. “I never really liked the government. That's why I chose this base. Well, this and my research that is.” He hisses when Taekwoon twists and rips a piece of the supporting hardware off. He always thought engineers would be more delicate. “A shame we’ll need to resurface so soon… Another six months on halt.”

“How many years of service?” Taekwoon throws him a glance over his shoulder. This conversation is going well, Hongbin is almost proud of himself.

Maybe it's because Taekwoon is not actively _looking_ at him and that makes him feel less inclined to sass him. “Here on the Nautilus?” The answer comes as a soft spoken _mm_ Hongbin prefers to overlook. “Almost eight years.”

“How old are you again?”

“I'm twenty six.”

“Was this your first job?”

“Yeah. Hakyeon took me under his wing soon after I left college. He used to be the head-biologist when I first came in.” Taekwoon hums in agreement. “I heard you two were friends in college.”

“Mm. We've hooked up for a while.” Taekwoon says it as if it's natural and Hongbin chokes on his own spit. Taekwoon looks mildly accomplished at that.

“You've dated my _boss_?!” _Oh-ho, looks who's getting exalted? For shame Lee Hongbin, have some restrain._

_He should stop sassing himself inside his own head, this can't be a good thing._

“I guess? We were teenagers and all that jazz. It barely lasted a month.” He hums thinking about the past, more than a decade has passed since then and Taekwoon is not all that good with details. “I think he said I was afraid of coming out. It was kind of true? I really don't like PDA, that much hasn't changed.”

“PDA?”

“Public displays of affection? Is that not a thing anymore? I don't know, it used to be.” When he speaks like that he sounds like an old man. If he and Hakyeon have the same age he's 29. _Dear Lord_. “Oh here's the thing. _”_

Again, the overly-robotic voice Hongbin can identify as the pod’s navigator intones in his monotonical voice: _Secondary security protocol activated, external hauls damage. Components missing._

_For further settings or repair contact the operator._

Taekwoon makes a pleased sound. “Got it.” Then he turns to Hongbin. “That would be you.”

“ _I'm_ the operator?” Taekwoon nods at him, his face tells him went through this exact same situation many times in the past.

“Research and extraction pods function on _O.B.I._ ” He starts, pulling a panel out. How many panels does thing thing have? “In short it's an _Operator Based Interface_. It recognizes you as the user and owner of the device so no one else can use, it is meant to avoid international espionage.”

“I've never heard of that.”

“Most of this base runs on deployed military equipment. That's why it's so old… It's good tech, it still works perfectly.” Taekwoon smiles brightly, the kind of smile Hongbin only ever sees on children when they get a new toy. The smile of someone who _loves_ what he does.

Again, Hongbin can identify with it. On a visceral level.

Taekwoon stops as soon as he gets himself smiling, as if ashamed. “Well, just input the security lock and I can handle the rest.”

Having nothing else to say Hongbin punches in the code on the manual from panel and Taekwoon pushes up to his feet again, just beside him. “That would be all, thank you.” He is always too close that's not okay.

Hongbin’s eyes fall to that pesky crumble in the corner of his mouth again and Taekwoon seems to misunderstand his intentions. For he quirks a brow.”There's a,” he provides an awkward, stiff gesture as indication. “A thing on your face.”

Taekwoon rubs his mouth over his arm, looking back at him to look for confirmation that the alleged thing he had mentioned is now off but the movement just pushed the crumble to his cheek. “Uh… Excuse me…”

He isn't all that sure why but how naturally Taekwoon allows him to touch his face makes him a little uncomfortable… He pushes the crumbles away with his thumb and takes three steps back for good measure. “Stranger danger?” Taekwoon asks with a good natured scoff, flinching his sweaty hair back for his hands are too dirty to do so.

“Yeah…” He points the door. “I will, uh… I will go now.”

“Sure. Bye.” He immediately sits back down again, eyeing the open side of the pod.

As Hongbin retreats, he can hear Taekwoon humming, the echo of his voice bounces on the empty hallways of the lower levels. Here, where the machinery rooms are.

_What the fuck was that?_

_What the fuck just happened?_

_Screw this_ , he has work to do.

 

And he works, for hours. In that kind of space he gets when he is _too focused_ on something. So much he doesn't _see_ the hours passing, he doesn't _see_ the interns walking to their rooms one by one, he doesn't _see_ the lights being called off.

When he blinks his eyes sting.

 _Shit_.

Thirty eight pages in and he feels like he wrote almost nothing. There are details missing, there are diagrams he has to draw…

He didn't even take any notes on the categorised jellyfishes they have _on board_ yet…

_Double shit._

He forgot to go get the lenses with Wonshik.

_Triple shit._

How much time has passed? Well, it doesn't matter all that much either way but he should… He should start seeing the footage he took from the pod, he hasn't even checked that. If things go well, he can pull an all-nighter and get this shit done.

_So… Where's that drive?_

_If the interns moved that box from where he placed it he will individually wake them up until_ _someone_ _tells where's his shit._

Well, no… it's right beside the table. _Good_.

Sitting for so long has left him sore in places, the base of his spine is in ruins but most definitely his ass is in worse state. These chairs are not designed for workaholics as himself. Maybe he could stand for a while? The idea of a cup of tea seems more and more enticing by the minute.

Not now though.

_Where that remote? Is the television plugged in?_

_Maybe?_

_No, wait. First of all where's the lightswitch again? That damned button should glow in the dark._

His legs feel a little wobbly but it's okay. He puts the footage to run and go unplug the mobile pad of his notebook, do a little stupid dance around the counter no one will ever see because it's three o'clock in the fucking morning and then press play and listen to his own voice (which is always an _oh so delightful experience his voice is so ridiculous Lord have mercy._ ) on the speakers.

At times like this he feels the urge to apologize to every human being he has ever spoken to. He could even pretend he was apologizing for being a sassy little fuck and clean his criminal record with God. _Nice._

He kicks the table on his way to the lightswitch, drops the remote, curses, and _of course_ accidentally skips to the end of the footage– _Is that Taekwoon?_

_Is that Jung Taekwoon on his fucking scientific footage?_

_Oh…_

_Oh it's from the night he had been eavesdropping._

_Well shit, welcome aboard the No-No train, a service sponsored by Guilt Trip, the best tourism agency._

_Here on the side we have Hongbin's dignity._

_It died a horrible death._

_No pictures please._

“He has a mole under his eye?” The sound of his own voice startles him, and he looks to the sides, like some fucking criminal on the lookout for cops. So smooth, oh _so smooth._

The first mistake of the night was closing the door.

The second was not rewinding the footage and going back to works.

The third was sitting on the working table, he's not supposed to sit there but he still does it sometimes. Like tonight.

_It's closer to the transmission monitor okay? He lost his glasses centuries ago…_

Taekwoon hums as he works, singing some sad song about the sea under his breath, sitting not a feet away from the camera… Looking at it from time to time, as if wondering if it's still on.

That quirk of his, the one about flinching his hair back all the time… It's kind of cute. Maybe. _“I should cut my hair, it's getting long again...”_ He mutters under his breath again. _“Oh… You have three levels of security? Hm, I'll handle that later. What's your name again?”_ He blinks, squinting at something. And then chuckles, bemusedly. _“You're called_ _P.E.E.T? How cute. I'll just call you Pet, is that okay?_ ”

_P.E.E.T as in Pod for Extremes Conditions, Exploration and Transport?_

_He calls him Pet?_

_He gives names to shit?_

_What? Is he like, five?_

_That’s… also kind of cute._

Taekwoon shimmies on the floor. Hopping to another side of the pod. “ _List of commands.”_

The pods voice sounds in ith that mechanical note Hongbin always disliked. _This command is unaccessible, unregistered voice. For more information, call operator._

 _“Who's the operator?_ ”

_Classified data, invalid question._

_“List of available commands.”_

_Available commands: Unlock hatch; Unlock front panel; Unlock side panel, left; Unlock side panel, right; Disengage accessories, tools, cameras, voice box, sonar._

_“Execute all. Disengage accessories, options, manual removal.”_  Sounds of metal clanking sound away from the camera's field of view. Taekwoon smiles again, that pleased smile of his.

_Reboot temporarily unavailable._

_“Wait for operator's command. Engage stasis.”_

_Temporary shutdown, no systems will be accessible. Continue?_

_“Yes.”_

_Stasis loading. See you soon, visitor._

Taekwoon chuckles again. _“See ya.”_

And the footage ends.

 

Well…

_Well, okay._

_Sure…_

_Uh…_

_Maybe he should get that tea now._


	5. Chapter 5

He sees Taekwoon and Jaehwan talking during lunch. It’s not unheard of, Jaehwan is known for befriending every person on the base. He is, as they say, _funny_.

Or… some shit like that.

Strangely, people have been fawning over Taekwoon too, he caught one of the interns calling him… What were the words again? She called him _hot as all hell._ Hongbin choked just a little.

Jeahwan is doing most of the talking but the fact that Taekwoon is interacting (even if forcibly) with another crew member was astounding. Besides that, Hakyeon is on the table too, and there is no lingering awkwardness between them, if anything they don’t even seem to notice each other all that much.

Hongbin just wanted to grab something he could eat on his way back but he was forced to seat when he passed Hakyeon. A shame Sanghyuk is still sick, he can’t even lie and say he has left him waiting… Damn it, he has to get better soon. “I never got a word of how your project went.” Hakyeon tells Taekwoon as he cuts a piece of his… uh, is that an omelette? He can’t tell, this dehydrated food all looks the same. Hongbin tenses a little as he sips at his juice. “Did they fund it?”

“The one I got on the third semester?” Hakyeon hums in confirmation. “No. I gave up on energy and focused on naval advancements around the fifth semester. You were already in your internship at the time.”

“I think I heard some things on it. Were you the one creating things to battleships?” Taekwoon nods as he chews. This all sounds so cordial, so casual.

Hongbin is uncomfortable. “That douchey friend of yours, what was his name again? Yoseob? I heard he went to genetics.”

“Yeah, I lost contact with him when I first went under. You know the Federation is quite protective of the geneticists and talking became impossible. They actually offered me a job at the facilities too, but I was too busy with Wonshik at the time. That power-cell was taking all my time.”

“Is it true the fundamentalists vetoed the cell? I’ve read about in the our infoline. They seemed proud about it.” Hakyeon comments with a scoff. “Wonshik showed me the plans. It was brilliant work.”

“Thanks. The security department doesn’t agree though.” Taekwoon sounds sour. The kind of dry sarcasm people who lost faith in humankind usually express.

“They’re a bunch of pigs, that’s what they are.” Jaehwan offers casually and Hakyeon raises his mug in agreement, tosses a muttered _cheers to that_ Hongbin agrees with in absolute silence. “Before here I worked for the Federation’s health branch. You know the thing right? Those shiny hospitals they stamped all across the portables everywhere?  I called out the day I found about the division system.”

“The program they use to separate patients based on their ID forms?” Taekwoon comments easily and Jaehwan’s eyes light up in recognition.

“You know about that?”

“Mm.”

“You worked for the Federation too?”

“S.E.R.D” Taekwoon informs, Hongbin can vaguely name that as the robotics department of the Federation.

“I was on E.M.F! How come I never saw you?” Jaehwan seems suddenly much more amiable. Taekwoon looks a little sheepish about it.

“I kept myself away from the Medical Facilities. The biohazard stamps everywhere made me a little itchy.” At that Jaehwan laughs wholeheartedly. “The one time I ever stepped there was during containment breach? To fix the isolation chambers?”

“You were part of the engineering team? They never notified us of your names. I was off duty that day, I was called in when they told me about the breach. Had to synthesize a vaccine.” Taekwoon hums, he remembers the effort. “Woah, what a small world.”

“Right?”

“Are you going to kiss too?” Hakyeon asks them mockingly with yet another sip of his mug, and Hongbin chokes a little yet again. “Should I bring flowers? Cover Hongbin’s eyes?” Woah, _rude._

Taekwoon chuckles lightly. “You still have the same sense of humor.” Hakyeon looks up from his papers and back at him. It lasts for a few long, excruciatingly awkward moments. Or at least for Hongbin they are.

But then again, he has been uncomfortable from the moment he sat down.

“I have to go.” Taekwoon informs them, softly. “Thank you for the company.” And then he slips away, checking the band around his wrist for further compromises.

He is barely out of sight and Jaehwan is already saying. “He is quite the charmer isn’t he?” Hakyeon hums in innocuous agreement. “I mean, even Hongbin is shook.”

“ _Excuse me?_ ”

“Oh, please Binnie. You have been gaping at the man’s face like a fish out of the water for the last five minutes.” Hakyeon pretends his snicker is actually a sneeze but Hongbin glowers either way. “I knew you had in you. Hormones, I mean.”

“Well, I thought you had it in you too.”

“What? Hormones?”

“No. The ability of keeping your unwanted opinion to yourself.”

“ _Oh, snap._ ” Hakyeon chuckles out loud as Hongbin throws his napkin over the table in an offended manner.

“How old are you again, Hakyeon?” Jaehwan asks with an eyebrow raised.

“I’m twenty nine. I’m also your boss and thus I can laugh at you indiscriminately like that to my heart's content. Or a could just file you a notification for drinking during work hours how about that, hm?” He’s still chuckling and Jaehwan makes that displeased face he does every once in awhile. The face that tells he is one breath away from start yelling.

And he can yell really loud.

Hongbin slips away after that.

Maybe he should bribe one of the interns to go get the lenses for him on the greenhouse. He really wants to avoid Wonshik at all costs.

  
  
  


~×~

  
  
  


Hakyeon sends him a report during the day. Tells him he is meant to file the modifications of the exploration pod ( _or Pet_ ) to the internal datalog, but not on the main system. All information and sensitive content is to be uploaded there, to avoid _unnecessary questioning and nuisances_ , Hakyeon tells him.

Taekwoon is not against it, he doesn't like the Initiative's infoline all that much either way, and he prefers to let all the non-protocoled diversions away from the Federation’s prying eyes. The base is not _obligated_ to report his arrival immediately, not by law, and he would prefer to go longer without being questioned over his contract violation, working for another company when he's still dealing with lawsuit and suspension of both, his license and his position.

When he called Hakyeon the first time ( _after many calls from Wonshik insisting vehemently he should do it_ ) the man has told him every crew member of the Nautilus assigned to the post to run away of something. Taekwoon often thinks if that's his case too.

Regardless he came, and it's _good_ to work again. He had missed it… He truly did.

So much he doesn't think much of the late nights or the suboptimal conditions or the lack of proper paraments, no tools on board for him to execute his work without burning a fingers, breaking a nail, touching exposed wires and getting mildly electrocuted every once in awhile. He doesn't even mind the biologist, the dimpled one, Hakyeon's protejeé it seems.

 _"Engineering do you copy_?” Calls Hakyeon's voice from the interphone on the wall. If he knew the communications systems where so rudimentary he would have brought his earset. At least then he would have his hands free. “ _Taekwoon?_ ”

He does a haphazard job at cleaning his hands on his pants before touching the interphone. “What is it Hakyeon?”

“One of the Filters is working again. Was it you?” Hakyeon's voice seems distant, he must be doing other things as they speak. “You sound out of breath. Am I interrupting something?”

“Yeah. Work.”

“You're no fun.” Hakyeon sighs. “How's the progress? Is Hongbin there?”

“Who?” Taekwoon really wants to push his hair back but his hands are dirty and his hair is all sweaty. He needs a bath.

“The cute biologist with dimples.”

“The sassy one?” He frowns a little. He's bad with names but excellent with faces. Specially of the ones who instantly annoy him, like... Hongbin? Was it?

_Damn he'll forget again._

“Bingo.”

“No. Why would he?”

“I told him to watch over you.” Taekwoon groans and Hakyeon chuckles lightly. “What a sexy sound. Care to do that again?”

“Hakyeon behave.” Good thing people can't see his face over interphone. “I don't need a babysitter. I won't bolt us up without his aval. I'm not stupid and you gave me orders not to.”

“Forgive my skepticism but you never listened to me before.”

“You were never my boss before.”

“Woah, I'm in awe.” Hakyeon is laughing again. Stupid sarcastic Hakyeon, he's not paid enough for this. Actually, he's not being paid _at all_.

“Don’t be, just let me work.”

“Okay, okay Mr.Professional, do your thing. Again good work with the filter, thanks.”

“No matter.”

“And Taekwoon.”

“Yeah?”

“You'll always have a space in my base okay? Just so you know.”

Taekwoon can't deal well with the mushy stuff. Years have passed and he _still_ cannot deal with the mushy stuff _at all._ “Is that an innovative sexual innuendo?”

“And you ruined it. Oh my fucking god, the only time I try to have some serious conversation with you and you–”

“I know. I appreciate it.” Hakyeon falls quiet for a second. “Look, you know I'm not good with this emotional stuff… But thank you, for offering and shit. It means a lot.”

“You’re not saying that just to shut me up, are you?”

“It would never work.” Taekwoon says somewhat affectionately, Hakyeon hums in agreement

“Glad you know that. Now back to work. You're not paid to chat.”

“I'm not paid at all, and you were the one who called me.”

“Hush now servant!”

Taekwoon ends the call, he has to laugh just a little and Hakyeon won't have this pleasure. Not today.

  
  


~×~

  
  


“Okay, how about I guess then?”

Hongbin sighs. “Sanghyuk-ah~” He may sound a little whiny, buy he’s not really in the mood for any of that, specially because Jaehwan has been giving him the meanest stares since breakfast.

“No, it's gonna be fun.” He sits back up straight and Hongbin is happy at least his conflicts bring some sort of temporary distraction to Sanghyuk afflictions. “Okay, tell me how close I am. Was it Taekwoon?”

“ _Oh my god, why_ does everyone keeps asking about him?” Hongbin throws his hands in the air in mild exasperation. He is done talking about Taekwoon today. He is done talking about Taekwoon _for the rest of his life._

“Uh, that was kind of easy… What about Taekwoon?” Sanghyuk grabs his cup of water, crossing his legs over the bed as if this is a goddamn sleep over and not him being kept in a bed because he's vomiting his insides out like a fucking sea cucumber.

“ _Nothing_. _Nothing about Taekwoon_. I don't even _know him_. What the actual living fuck.”

“Did you know you talk like a teenager girl when you get too stressed?” He can _hear_ more than see Jaehwan snickering from across the room. “No judging. I'm just pointing it out.”

“If you weren't dying already I would poison your food.”

“I also value our friendship a lot buddy. But seriously, what about Taekwoon?” Hongbin takes the empty plastic cup of Sanghyuk's hand just to throw it back at him, aiming for his face but hitting his chest instead. He has that face of sincere annoyance Sanghyuk likes a lot.

A second later Taekwoon (because Hongbin can’t be away from this man for not even five minutes, and he’s not even trying to stalk him) come in, dragged by Wonshik who just seems somewhat displeased. “It’s not that serious, Shik-ah~” _Was that a whine?_ “It’s just–”

“Shut it.” Wonshik’s usually soft voice leaves no space for discussion, and Taekwoon falls quiet after that, seemingly pacified but also grumpy. “Stupid.”

Sanghyuk whistles under his breath. Hongbin has to agree with that, he never saw Wonshik being so incisive with just about anyone before. And Hongbin was explicitly a jerk with him, multiple times even.

“Move, Jaehwan.” He moves past Jaehwan and Jaehwan seems surprised too, distracted as he was in passive-aggressively let his grudge against Hongbin be known. He is not truly angry but he wants apologies. Wonshik pushes Taekwoon’s hands into the sink.

Taekwoon winces. “ _Ow, ow ow ow..._ ”

“Quiet.” Wonshik quips, and Taekwoon almost pouts. “I told you to use gloves. Why didn’t you use gloves? There’s deadly bacteria in that water, you could catch a horrible _and fatal_ fever, you doofus.” There are a few blisters on Taekwoon’s fingers and Wonshik inspects them quietly.

“Thought you were mad at me.” Taekwoon says, shaking the water of his hands as Wonshik grabs some cotton balls and a vial of alcohol. Jaehwan is baffled.

“I’m _still_ mad at you.” Taekwoon hums, wincing quietly as Wonshik pats a cotton to his blisters, ripping some band-aids open and tapping them around Taekwoon’s long fingers. “Stay still.”

Hongbin suddenly remembers he has to get the lenses with Wonshik and since he’s… right there. “Uh… Dr.Kim?”

Wonshik’s entire demeanor changes when he looks in Hongbin’s directions. Back at being… clueless and slightly unsettling. “Me?”

“Well, yeah. You’re the only Dr.Kim here.” _Great, do sass him more you don't feel guilty enough, do you?_

“Yeah I… What is it?”

“Can I borrow your spare lenses? To update the lab’s datalog?” He is not used to sounding so tentative. On normal circumstances he would just drop by the greenhouse, take the thing and shake it a few times in the air saying _I’m borrowing this for a while please and thank you_. The idea was to walk in and out fast enough he wouldn’t have to talk to anyone else in the room.

Wonshik nods slowly a few times, seemingly as lost as him. “That’s it?”

“I… suppose?”

“Sure, uh… Feel free to go get it once you have the time.”

“Thanks...”

Silence goes on for a few time before Taekwoon hums a sound from within his throat that seems to snap Wonshik back to reality. “Are you going to hold my hand forever?” Wonshik scowls and it makes him scoff a little amused laugh. It last very little for Wonshik is pressing down at his blisters and making him whine again.

“I don’t know why I even bother.” Wonshik says on his way out and Taekwoon trails quietly after him.

“I still need your set of pliers.”

“Go get it yourself.”

“I can’t enter the greenhouse, I don’t have the code.”

“That sounds like a _you_ problem.” Even from here, Hongbin can detect the infamous sound of Wonshik's weird laughter.

Sanghyuk as the enormous creepy son of a fuck he _is_ somehow manages to sneak beside Hongbin just enough to whisper. “They seem close.” and make Hongbin almost cough his heart out. “You seemed entertained, is it possible that you are finally taking interest in a creature with a developed brain?”

“That’s debatable… I’m not sure they have a developed brain at all.”

“Again, it’s really cute that that’s the only part you felt the need to rectify.” Sanghyuk has that smile on, the one that says he is about to say something really cheeky but Hongbin beats him to it.

“As a scientist I only respond to cohesive facts. Which you haven’t presented.” And Sanghyuk scoffs. When he speaks again he is not all that sure of what is he even trying to say… So he mumbles. “One of the interns today was talking about it, they called Taekwoon _hot as all hell_ and I mean I suppose he is… Well proportioned and stuff–”

“And you have the audacity of saying Wonshik is the creepy one.”

“–But he is weird.”

“So are you.”

“Woah, rude.”

“You speak to the jellyfishes the way my mom talks to babies and dogs.” Sanghyuk finally settles back on the bed. “You stare into space everyday for _minutes_ on end, you’re super cringey and laughing is your defense mechanism to absolutely everything. I mean you had a giggle fit when you accidentally dropped half our glass flasks and petri dishes on the floor to the point I seriously thought you had finally snapped.” _Oh… That day was kind of intense wasn’t it?_  “And don’t think I don’t know you dance when you think you’re alone in the lab. I saw it and–”

“ _Okay._ ” Sanghyuk has too much blackmail material, Hongbin just noticed that. “I _got it. Stop._ ”

“Are you gay, Hongbin?” Jaehwan decided to participate in the conversation and that just makes everything two thousand times more awkward. “I mean I was seriously joking when I said you were shook, but are you shook for real?”

“I’ve– dated girls... in the past.” He frowns a little. “Does it matter though?”

“No. I mean, you’re hot I would totally–”

“Don’t you dare finish this sentence I’m serious.”

Jaehwan hums quietly. “Hm… prude.”

“He’s shy.” Sanghyuk clarifies.

Hongbin is feeling very attacked at the moment. “Am not!”

“What’s the kinkiest shit you’ve ever done?”

“Why would I– What the fuck? Why would I tell you that? It’s none of your business.”

“Okay I can start. Once I was with this guy back when I was interning–”

“I _don’t want to know Jaehwan._ ” Hongbin says, maybe too loud.

“I do. Go on.” Sanghyuk sniffs once and Hongbin gets up to his feet and out the door before Jaehwan can even take a breath. “I told you, he’s shy.”

To be completely honest, Hongbin is not shy. He’s not… He’s not shy at all.

He has quite a library of stories of shit he has done in life but he just usually keeps them away from his work space. He is not really the kind to flaunt this kind of thing around. Hongbin doesn’t really… He doesn’t do _relationships_. Preferably, he likes the whole ‘ _one and done_ ’ ordeal a lot more than any long lasting meaningful mushy shit. He fares extremely poorly with romance and even more poorly with commitment; the main reason for it being: He is too committed with his job to be committed to… another… human.

That sounds really awful, but it’s not that bad.

He also believes it’s extremely unfair to make someone else wait for him when he’ll just be stuck 12.000 feet under into the ocean in some abyssal crack studying jellyfishes for nine months? A year? For _a long time_ and know someone misses him immensely but he is too busy working.

Or even worse… Missing them back.

The whole problem is that he loves his job too much to love much anything else.

_For all ends and purposes his heart is already taken. Tough luck._

“Doctor, the samples you requested were taken.” Okay now _that's_ more like it.

_There's work to be done._

  
  


_So he works..._

_For several days actually...They pass, like they always do, frantic and busy._

For things are always happening around here, it seems.

“Okay I’m here. I slept one hour and a half and I’m moody as _fuck_. Where’s fucking Sanghyuk?” He grumbles on his way to his chair.

Sanghyuk returned to them a few days ago, fortunately before Hongbin had a stroke herding the interns and keeping them away of things they could potentially destroy, such as his _fucking sanity_.

 _He is actually very salty, he couldn’t agree more._ “Here.” Sanghyuk says, head poking from behind the tank on the other side of the room.

“Where’s my–”

“On the shelf beside the books.”

“Hm… Good.” He takes a sip of his equal part watery equal parts bitter black tea and thinks what’s so hard about tea that makes it so difficult to make. Maybe it’s because it’s made of actual leaves and not that biosynthesized shit Hongbin is used to.

He plugs the notebook on the wall but it doesn’t immediately light up. “Why is my note not turning on?” He looks around and all the portables seem to be turned off. “What the shit is going on?”

“It seems like we’re running on energy restriction today.” Sanghyuk tells him, unfazed by his tone and his face, the face of a man one breath away from stabbing someone with a pen. It’s only when Hongbin makes that face that Sanghyuk truly remembers how big his eyes are.

“ _Fan-fucking-tastic._ ” He groans, but whatever next sardonic comment he was going to vocalize gets lost when the lower floor alarm starts that droning and absolutely maddening wailing sound to indicate the lower hatch was being opened. “What the hell...?” He presses the intercom and calls Hakyeon’s terminal, waiting for him to pick up and answer what the hell is happening.

They are not on alarm and the panels in the hallway don’t accuse any kind of damage on the external haul of the base. _Then what even?_ “Hakyeon speaking, what is it?”

“What the actual hell? Are we sinking?” He asks, putting his mug down on the counter. It’s not a good tea anyway. “Why are we running on low systems? All my portables are turned off, if my experiments die because of fucking decompression I’ll burn this whole place down.”

“Morning to you too. No, we are, in fact, not sinking.” Hakyeon says, lenient only because he knows Hongbin hasn’t gotten a decent night of sleep in five days.

“Then why is the lower hatch open?”

“Taekwoon is going out to fix the leakage.”

Oh… Oh yeah, Taekwoon. Taekwoon who’s actually a real person that exists outside the space of this laboratory. He hasn’t seen him since he borrowed Wonshik’s lenses about a week ago… Then one of the resident rats showed a positive reaction to the serum they were trying to make and all hell broke loose.

Hongbin hasn’t sleep a single night since then, the tank with the Turritopsis dohrnii remains in the corner and Hongbin’s fingers itch to just proceed with his report. “Oh… Sure, right.”

“You and your crew should go down to check. If we get the aval then we’ll start resurface as soon as he comes back.” Hakyeon instructs, in that voice that leaves no space for arguments.  “And _please_ , go the fuck to sleep before I get really mad and punch your pretty white teeth all in. I mean it.”

“Yeah… okay.”

“Good. Now get to it.” And then Hakyeon is out.

Hongbin runs both hands over his tired face, Sanghyuk is already picking the tools to go proceed with the tests. “ _Sanghyuk we ready?_ ”

“Yup. Let’s go.”

“I need a drink.”

“You need to sleep.” Sanghyuk snickers and Hongbin scowls out of habit not because he necessarily disagrees with what was said, because as a matter of fact, he doesn’t. He needs to _go the fuck to sleep_ just as Hakyeon told him. “I totally even forgot about the leakage since the whole chaos with the Turritopsis dohrnii started. It’s some really serious shit we’re doing, if this works… Dude the things we could do with it. I mean, it’s… Woah.”

“I know.”

“You're quiet, what's up?”

“Nothing just shit tired.”

“Let's just make this stupid test and start resurface at once, we need more tools than this, need to get more on the HQ, maybe even file some requirements.” They do. They need more tools. Taekwoon's voice saying this base is a deployed military equipment comes to mind, along with the smile that followed those words.

And the video footage…

Yeah all that.

The new camera of their old pod transmits the image of the crack on the external haul very clearly on the big television of the engineering quarters. All those other engineers Hongbin never saw before (three of them to be precise) make the other side the fixing from the inside. “This segment of the haul is sealed, it has no contact to the pipes even if it's filled with water.” A woman says, Hongbin doesn't know her but her name tag spells Han, like Sanghyuk, but he is pretty sure they are not related.

“It has to be air sealed.” Taekwoon repeats through the microphone. “I will do the fixing on this side and you guys pump the water out.”

“Got it.” They spring into motion, bringing some drills Hongbin wasn't even aware they had on board. The screen shows the process of Taekwoon welding the haul.

The sound of the drills echo inside Hongbin's head a little too much but he hasn't slept so it's no wonder. He and Sanghyuk quietly take a seat to wait until they are allowed to test.

“Did you close the oil pipes?” Taekwoon asks and it's kind of ominous, hearing his voice but not seeing his face like this.

“Most of them, but we can close them all or the engines would malfunction.” She says pushing the protection glasses up her nose.

“I kno–”

“Taekwoon?” She looks up, squinting a little, trying to blink away the bright spots in her vision left by the sparks of the drill. “Did you seal the haul?”

“Yeah just… The air supply just shut off.”

“Then get the fuck back in before you suffocate. We have no way of supporting you in there.” She says and Taekwoon hums, but doesn't move, just goes back to the fixing. “Taekwoon?”

“I have to finish this.” He sounds calm.

Hongbin shifts a little in his seat.

“Taekwoon you have no time.”

“It will be just a second.”

Another alarm goes off and they all jump, the voice of their internal system enunciates cooly and mechanically.

 

_Connection unstable, batteries low._

 

She seems exasperated and in a sense Hongbin is too. “ _Taekwoon_ , it's overheating the batteries won't hold. _Get back_.”

 

_Life support systems detect low levels of oxygen inside the portable unit._

The camera goes off and she rushes to the panel. “ _Shit_.”

 

_The user chose to cut video conference. Re-connection not possible._

“ _Shit!_ ” And she runs to the interphone, Hongbin holds his notes a little tighter and the paper crumples easily under his fingers. “ _Open the hatch now! Bring Jaehwan immediately to the engineering quarters.”_

 

_Smoke detected. System malfunctioning, automatic controls deactivated._

Followed by…

 

_Lower hatch unlocked._

“He won't stick that landing.” And she presses the red button right beside the green on on the interphone, the one used to transmit to the entire base. “ _Attention all staff, prepare for impact._ ”

And an impact does come, making Hongbin almost fall from his chair and Sanghyuk drop some flasks.

 

_Lower hatch locked._

_Initiating process of decontamination. Draining water; restoring internal pressure._

 

She runs, and Sanghyuk goes after her, Hongbin after him and the other two after him, fumbling with the sealed door and running down the stairs to the lower hatch, the stairwell is still wet from the draining, smelling like salty water.

Insides of the pod are cloudy with smoke. She has been yelling Taekwoon's name since they stepped in but to Hongbin it all sounds so distant, his heart beating on his ears… Her desperation leaves him desperate too… He's not like Hakyeon.

Nervous as she jumps over the pod and pulls the manual lever to open the front of the device and see a cloud of thick dark smoke rise like a rain cloud.

Not a minute later Jaehwan is there, and they take Taekwoon –coughing and wheezing– out of the pod and into the wet floor. Jaehwan presses an oxygen mask to his face. “What happened?” he asks her for Taekwoon has his eyes closed, coughing violently still.

“I think one of the batteries melted down.”  And her statement is accentuated by the sound of Taekwoon's coughs,by the sound of something inside the pod raining colorful sparks. “We knew these batteries weren't ideal but he wanted to try. We didn't have much choice, and we had to work before the engine got damaged.”

“Restart the main generator.” Taekwoon croaks, eyes still closed and watery, red from the smoke, breathlessly trying to clear up his throat to no avail. “We need the energy back.”

“Yah! You almost gave me a heart attack!” Jaehwan yells and Taekwoon wheezes a little _sorry_ under his breath.

Hongbin notices he hasn't been breathing when his chest starts hurting… _Well shit._

_He is certainly not sleepy anymore._

They linger until Jaehwan leaves, telling Taekwoon to come immediately after they finish the formalities, he wants to check the pain on his chest, he may have inhaled some toxic gases and he has to make sure he is not poisoned. Only then Sanghyuk and Hongbin finally start any tests, gingerly and with Taekwoon meekly drinking water in a corner of the room, coughing sporadically like some old smoker after a cigarette.

But for now there's no infiltration coming in, which means there's no oil coming out.

And that means… It's time to go up.

Hongbin swears he sees relief on Taekwoon's eyes when he announced green light to start resurfacing.

“This is Dr.Lee Hongbin from the research laboratory.” He says into the interphone after pressing the numbers to the command center. Hakyeon’s office. “I just signed the papers. We can start resurfacing process.” Hongbin says as evenly as he can manage, watching Taekwoon refuse help from the rest of the engineering staff to walk to the infirmary. _I'm fine let me rest._

Almost immediately the mechanical voice from the internal software speaks again.

 

_Decompression process initiated. In case of necessity, please go directly to the medical staff._

From the speakers Hakyeon's voice comes a little breathless, like he has been running. “ _This is your Captain speaking, we will start resurfacing process. As usual all activities must be interrupted during this time, wait for further instructions once we make our first stop._ ” The pressure on the sole of his feet and the sounds of metal wailing and clanking tell him they are already moving, the panels blink yellow now in capital black letters.  

_RESURFACING_

_DEPTH: 11.898ft._

... 

…

…

...11.897ft.

 

Hakyeon is there in the next second, eyes darting around, looking for wounded, fire. He doesn't look panicked properly, but then again, he never panicks. “Is everything alright? I’ve heard you called for emergency assistance.”

Sanghyuk and Hongbin both nod, eyes turning to Hakyeon on the door as Hakyeon’s eyes go to Taekwoon and his oxygen mask. Taekwoon gives him a thumbs up with one hand for he holds the mask with the other. “M’fine. Just a little breathless.” He croaks a little, but he looks considerably better than he did before. No longer pale, no longer sweating.

“Why aren't you in the infirmary with Jaehwan?”

“I just need to sit down for a moment. It's okay.” The woman beside him scoffs, turning to Hakyeon on the door like she believes he will be more successful in convincing Taekwoon to go seek treatment than she was. “He inhaled toxic gas from the melted batteries.”

“None in enough quantity to be lethal. I was there for two minutes at best, you are overreacting.” He clears his throat and that seems to be enough to delegitimize his statement for Hakyeon, Hongbin already knows what he'll say before he even opens his mouth.

He worked with Hakyeon for too long not to. “You'll go rest.”

“Hakyeon, this is unnecessary.”

“As your captain, and a concerned friend who _knows_ you already went to work during a snowstorm, I give myself the right to assume your judgement is clouded and therefore cannot be trusted.” Hakyeon enunciates the words evenly, and Taekwoon sighs, looking at the ceiling. Hongbin had done this exact same face countless times in the past.

“Fine. But this pod must be repaired before I return, and if I deem this work unfitting I'll tear it all down and re-do everything myself, are we clear supervisor Han?” The woman nods enthusiastically. “And it better not be that half-assed welding job your crew did on the Filter, we're still not done talking about that.”

She looks somewhat ashamed about the whole thing but Taekwoon's eyes are unwavering. “Y-Yes head-engineer Jung.”

“Mm.” He pushes off the chair with some difficulty and Hakyeon comes to aid him. “I can walk, _Captain_.” He sounds grumpy, a little more as Hakyeon pinches his side with that displeased look on his eyes. “ _Ow_ … You're so mean...” He mumbles softly, that little pout on his lips and an equally little hitch between his brows.

“Stop muttering shit and let's go. I have to make sure you'll go see Jaehwan for real.” Hakyeon says in that dry but awfully parental voice of his. He gives some painful pinches for sure… Hongbin's interning days were full of it.

That was always the overall sentiment in here. Even if Hongbin was never particularly close to any of the resident researchers (nor had he any plans on becoming close to any of them ever) he was never consumed by that oppressive professional and bureaucratic atmosphere facilities such as this usually have; and maybe that's why he stayed.

He didn't earn all that much working here, it was a rundown base trailing off the edges of the security requirements, made of obsolete equipment and covered under three layers of duct tape… The whole place was old and falling apart, and sure Hongbin would prefer to be alone, but he was grateful that in the end, he was free to focus on his work above anything.

Somehow he knew that's what Hakyeon was going for and he never felt the need to voice his thankfulness, but the fact no one has ever filed any reports to expose the irregularities (they barely followed any protocol after all) of their base was a proof the feeling was shared among the crew. They didn't _mind_ the barely functioning electronics, they didn't _mind_ the shortages and the rationings, they didn't _mind_ the horrible food, the lack of tools or the constant alarm or the clanking sounds of wailing metal as they moved. Hongbin certainly didn't.

It seemed oddly idealistic when said it like that, but it wasn't, it was just that the crew around here has much more to think, more than advanced tech and shiny floors.

It was so much more important than the rust on the corners of the staircases or the jammed doorknobs.

He leaves that room thinking about that, about commitment. He likes commitment a lot.

And he may sympathize with Taekwoon just a little because of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let's power this up a little with like a triple update thing


	6. Chapter 6

“They are fixing the pod for when we make our first stop.” Sanghyuk reasons like a condescending parent, but Hongbin knows that, he just wants to complain. There’s nothing deep behind it.

“I know that but still…” Another sigh, this one longer than the previous. “I’m so bored… And I want to continue the research, isolate this gene, draw my diagrams, continue the article. So much to do and I’m here, watching Percival run.”

“We can talk.” Sanghyuk tells him, trying to be placating.

“About?”

“I don’t know… I heard Taekwoon refused to stay resting in the infirmary and he and Hakyeon had some nasty fight over it.”

His interest is moderately picked. “Nasty like what? They mentioned their previous relationship of some shit like that?”

“Their… Their _what_?” _Oh… yeah… Sanghyuk doesn’t know about that._

 _Well, oopsie daisy_. “Uh… Nothing.”

“Lee Hongbin what was that about them having a previous relationship? Don’t give me this _uh nothing_ bullshit.” Oh no, he placed the rubix cube on the table. That’s bad.

Oh, that’s bad.

“Just some gossip I’ve heard, nothing much.” Hongbin talks with as much conviction a man that is making up lies as he goes can muster but Sanghyuk doesn’t seem convinced and it's a shame. Mostly because Hongbin has no other lie to offer.

“Heard from who? You don’t talk to anyone.”

“ _Rude._ ”

“I’m not lying though. Who told you that?”

“You can believe it or not, it’s on you.” Hongbin sighs in fake annoyance, actually he is just nervous. “I’m going out grab something to eat. Want something?”

“Are you going to pretend you didn’t just drop this info on me and walk away?”

“Yup. See ya.” Hongbin slips out as Sanghyuk calls after him, he won’t stop and he is very much running away now… Well it’s not like he has any work to do, or he does, but he can’t so there’s that. Might as well grab something to drink and go be obtrusive somewhere.  The panel on the wall reads _DEPTH: 10.509ft._

They’ll stop on 10.000ft for decompression and then he’ll go back to work. It’ll be fine, he can survive that. A commotion coming down the stairs warns Hongbin to move. “Taekwoon you stop this and go back to bed.” That’s Jaehwan’s voice.

But Taekwoon’s answer never comes. “Taekwoon stop ignoring me! _Taekwoon!_ ” Hongbin steps back and Taekwoon rushes him by, seemingly set on ignoring Jaehwan’s presence and walk back to his post. “Hakyeon said you should rest!”

Jaehwan gives up on him by the time he reaches Hongbin standing on the hallway, looking mildly curious. “ _Geez that guy..._ ” He sighs, Hongbin mindfully quiet until Jaehwan turns to him with a resigned sigh. “He is even worse than you. You listen at least.”

“I told you I was docile.”

He doesn’t like that little spark of realization he sees forming in Jaehwan’s eyes. “You’re not doing anything are you?”

“Uh… Why?”

“Watch over him will you? If he starts getting dizzy hit him in the head with a vase and drag him back to me.” Hongbin arches a single brow. “Actually don’t do that. I’m sure you would actually hit him and tell Hakyeon I was the one who told you to do it you nasty creature.”

“Not a good approach if you’re trying to convince me to do shit for you. Try again.” Jaehwan smiles one of those overly friendly smiles of his and Hongbin tries not to look outwardly uncomfortable at it. “I wasn’t being serious you know.”

“ _Please? Pretty please?_ Please follow that relentless man who ignores all my medical advice and guarantee he doesn’t die?” Hongbin makes a face. No matter how utterly _vacant_ his schedule may be won’t ever be eager to do shit like that... to _watch over a grown man._ Jaehwan is really pushing the boundaries here. “I have to go back to the infirmary. We are understaffed with this resurfacing situation going on. People are coming in and out all the time. If he dies it’ll be on you.”

 _Oh-ho guilt trips? Little does he know Hongbin is already too deep into his own personal guilt-trip involving Taekwoon to be caught up in another one._ “I wouldn’t feel all that guilty I assure you.” He would but Jaehwan doesn’t have to know, how dare he try to make Hongbin feel bad when he’s already feeling bad? _Shame on him._

“What a horrible human being you are. Just do it, you’re not doing anything now.”

Jaehwan is underestimating his desire to avoid unnecessary human contact apparently. “I don’t-”

“If you do it I’ll start going to the lab to give you your monthly shot so you can keep working and not actively come to me you workaholic piece of shit.”

“Deal.” Well, that was easy. Hongbin smiles brightly, but this time Jaehwan doesn’t reciprocate.

Jaehwan ushers him to go and Hongbin does, but not before he can stop and to grab a can of… something he won’t be capable of reading the name of in the vending machine by the end of the lower hallway (something Hongbin doesn’t usually does for this machine is malfunctioning, making the whole experience of buying drinks an adventure in itself) and hoping he didn’t get anything alcoholic in case the vending machine decides to give unlabeled cans again -and it most certainly will.

The prospect of spending time in the same room as Taekwoon, even if not riveting in the least, is not as painful as it once was. There are people on board Hongbin dislikes more than he dislikes Taekwoon. To be fair he doesn’t even _dislikes_ him, he is… _neutral_ … towards him. At least Taekwoon is an professional.

And the best part of this one trait is that Taekwoon will work and won’t try to _talk_ to him so Hongbin won’t have to think of _answers_ for dialogues between humans and that is really great. That’s a thing he likes about Taekwoon, he is quiet… and stuff.

Well he can survive that. That’s good.

As expected it's hot inside, stuffed, but he takes a seat regardless. It's not restricted area, he can stay here if he wants… watching Taekwoon walk around and speak in the interphone as if he hasn't noticed him and maybe he hasn't. Hongbin usually overlooks people when he's focused on work.

Granted it takes quite some time for him to say. “What are you doing here?” Hongbin looks up from the notes he had on him and back at Taekwoon, noticing the man has stopped walking to look at him.

“Jaehwan bribed me into making sure you won't faint and die.”

Taekwoon makes a face but doesn't complain out loud, that's good. “What are you drinking?” Is the next question, Hongbin's eyes falling to the can he had forgotten beside his thighs.

It's not warm yet but it's not cold either. “I don't know. Can't read the label… Want some?” He offers the can to Taekwoon and Taekwoon eyes him suspiciously. “It's not poisoned you asshole.” The words may be rude but his tone isn't, he has been drawing bees and starfishes on the corner of the page and he is not really trying to consolidate his fame as the douchiest man on the base.

He really isn't. “Why are you being nice?”

“Well shit, didn't know I was Satan himself.” He grumbles lightly. “Also this thing must be lukewarm by now, I don’t want it all that much… can't even read what it is.”

Taekwoon takes the can and Hongbin goes back to his notes, hearing the faint wheeze of the can being cracked open. “What does it taste like?” He asks out of pure reflex, not even looking up from his paper, wondering how his past self can have such a bad handwriting. Rushed notes suck.

“Peach, I guess.” Taekwoon tells him, offering the can back so he can have a taste. “It's good, have some.”

“Don't wanna, but thanks.” _This formula can't be right, there's too much oxygen in it, it's too unstable…_ man, he has to stop writing shit late at night.

Taekwoon hums, and walks away, Hongbin can hear the steps. “Disgusted by my spit or are you really trying to poison me?”

“I'm a biologist, bodily fluids don't scare me." Taekwoon hums."Yeah you got me with the poison, you have five minutes to live. Any last words?” Hongbin scoffs, taking a pen to underline everything that seems wrong in that page.

“I like your dimples.”

At that Hongbin rises his eyes and Taekwoon snickers, almost apologetic. “Wanted to see if you were paying attention.” And Hongbin frowns. “Go back to your paper.”

“Don't tell me what to do.”

Time slips by in a comfortable fashion. He spares Taekwoon some little glances from time to time (he's always humming) before going back to his notes. There's so many mistakes… brainstorming may be good but oh how it fucks up his notes’ integrity.

“Hey, dude.” Wonshik strolls inside and Hongbin spares him a glance too. Well, if Wonshik hasn't seen him then he's not there. “I brought the pliers. You can keep them we barely even use them in the- Hongbin?” _Shit._ “Uh… Hi.”

He rises his eyes from the paper. “Hello, Wonshik.”

One would think it would be best to let the conversation die there, but no… No, not Wonshik. Wonshik can't take silence well. How he fares with Taekwoon is a mystery. “What are you doing…?” a vague hand gesture Hongbin can't understand. “You know, here.”

“Jaehwan bribed him into babysitting me.” Taekwoon says as he takes the pliers from Wonshik's waiting hands. “Thanks.”

“I can speak for myself thank you very much Taekwoon.” Hongbin grumbles, always moody, but not sounding hostile at least. The thing is that when he isn't sounding hostile he is sounding grumpy, sassy or whiny and isn't that worse? “What he said.”

Taekwoon scoffs and Hongbin squints his eyes at him. “Right… Hongbin can I, uh… ask you a question?”

“You just did you moron.”

Silence, for few seconds, Taekwoon glances at Wonshik discreetly as the man shuffles on his feet. “Just ask oh my god.” Hongbin finally gives in, feeling that familiar taste of guilt settle in his tongue.

Talking to Wonshik was liking kicking a dog multiple times. Hongbin just couldn't do it.

Even with that Wonshik takes a little to answer. “I mean… are you okay? You've been… uh, not acting like yourself.”

Oh man, they would have to do that wouldn't they? Hongbin would be forced to verbally _address the fucking issue_ and apologize like a decent human being. He sighs in anticipation to this _marvelous_ prospect of a _fucking conversation about goddamn feelings._ “Wonshik, look, it... occurred to me that the shit I say all the time might have hurt your feelings.”

“I’ve never–”

“Aish let me finish, bloody hell.” Wonshik falls silent once again. “The thing is: I never thought you gave a shit about this because seriously I don't see why anyone would take me seriously… Ever. I'm prickly and salty and snappy and all those bad things people gossip about me in the cafeteria, okay? And I'm _sorry_ , okay? Please stop taking the shit I say to heart. You're nice guy _I get it_ , and you're considerate and shit _I get it._ You're probably gonna get married and have like six children and they'll be bullied at school because they'll be nice like you _I get it oh my god_.” Is this how socially functional people apologize? Probably not… but he said he's sorry so no one can blame him. “Just ignore me okay? I'm not made to talk to other humans, that's why I stay in the lab all the fucking time.”

Well he said a lot of things. “I don't– You... You think I'm nice? And considerate? I mean, woah… I think you're nicer than you give yourself credit for. Like, you’re prickly and all but you’re kinda nice too? Sanghyuk likes you a lot, he’s always advocating for you and–”

Hongbin cringes, just a little. “Stop this heartfelt shit I'm gonna slap you.” Wonshik –to his surprise– laughs that scandalously loud laugh of his. Hongbin puts an effort as not to scowl.

“Yeah, sure…” he smiles, amiable. “I'll go now.” He messes Taekwoon's hair for he's sitting on the floor and that makes the whole thing more convincing, he does it as he would to a child but Taekwoon doesn't seem to mind. He hums in acknowledgement and mumbles a sing-songed _thank you for the pliers_ Wonshik smiles softly at.

Hongbin watches him go, divided between relief and the absolute urge to yell that doesn't make them buddies _stay in your lane._ He doesn't dislike Wonshik but he can't really deal with the _mushy-heartfelt-friendship-love-whatever-fuck-it._

_He’s awkward okay? He said it._

_Fuck._

Wonshik is barely out the door and Taekwoon is already back at humming, eyes focused on the open mess of wires and newly added set of pliers. It's easy enough for Hongbin to go back reading his papers, the sound of Taekwoon working somewhat soothing, he discovered he is incapable of concentrating in absolute silence.

“You should eat.” Taekwoon finally says after a long moment of silence, maybe an hour, flinching his hair back to no avail, it keeps falling back to his eyes.

Hongbin blinks dumbly at him. “I will in a minute?”

“It's bad for you to go without eating for so long. Your mom never told you that?”

“No, my mom wasn’t there.” Taekwoon looks back at him, as if waiting for him to elaborate. It occurs him he made it sound like his mother had died? Maybe? “I grew up with my grandparents.” He elucidates, as much information as he is willing to give now.

“I grew with my mom and my two sisters, my father works for the Federation so I don't really see him anymore.” Taekwoon tells him in response and Hongbin blinks. Well he didn't _ask_ but… it's fine, he supposes. “It's been a long time since I last saw them, I hope they're well.”

“I… see my grandma every Christmas.” He supplies then, not really sure of what else could he say… Taekwoon seems oddly placated, he smiles a little at him.

“That's nice. How is she like?” Is this small talk? It seems like small talk, _holy shit this is small talk for real isn’t it?_

“She's… small, has tiny hands, smiles a lot. She's nice.” This conversation even if not explicitly personal makes him slightly uncomfortable, he doesn't usually… He doesn't usually talk about his family with people, but then again no one ever asks.

“One of my sisters got married last year, she has a baby. He's the cutest, we make video conferences from time to time, and she sends me many pictures too… It's good, especially for someone like me who spends most of my time underwater. ” He hums a soft little smile Hongbin can barely see as he hangs his head low like this, chewing aimlessly at his lower lip.

 _What the fuck does he say to keep the flow of this? It’s like when his grandma left him alone in the living room with her book club and he had to provide light conversation._ His palms are sweating just from thinking about it. “Are you… uh… The oldest?”

“The youngest actually.” He scoffs and Hongbin hums in nervous agreement. “My mother still lives in the same house. Wonshik was my neighbor when we were kids. My mom asks about him a lot.” Taekwoon rambles idly and Hongbin only listens, he has nothing to say but has no heart to tell Taekwoon to stop talking either. “He's a nice kid, really sweet and caring. Glad you decided to stop tormenting him.” Hongbin is forced to verbalize a mumbled _h_ _m yeah I guess_ and scratch his arm nervously as he did in highschool when his philosophy teacher asked him to share his thoughts with the class. “He used to get beaten up at school. He was all lanky and weird, made some stupid tattoos he thought were cool.” _Why is he saying all this? Why would he tell Hongbin, the alleged saltiest and meanest piece of shit in the base about all that?_ “I had to beat a lot of people up… He used to cry a lot when he was younger and I felt I had to do something. After I moved out we kinda fell out of touch, I'm glad to see he's fine.”

“I mean, not to shit all over confession party but why are you telling me all this?” Taekwoon throws all his tools in a box as Hongbin speaks, he is quite careless with things that aren't even his to begin with.

“Don't know.” He shrugs. “No particular reason, I was just thinking about it.” That's not really a good reason, at least Hongbin thinks it isn't, but Taekwoon doesn't seem to mind, he walks to the interphone and presses some numbers Hongbin doesn't identify properly. “Hey, Han, I finished repairing the filter’s engine, turn it on and see if it's running smoothly.”

Hongbin watches Taekwoon turn to the filter as it starts spinning, surprisingly silent for a mildly functioning piece of deployed military equipment. “I'm gonna eat something, you'll stay here?”

Oh… _Shit he's staring._ “There's some oil on your face…” He answers instead, as if to justify why would he stare at him for so long (but Taekwoon hasn't asked at all). “Right here on your–” he makes a motion to show the spot on his cheek and Taekwoon hums, looking at his reflexion on the glass, looking for this imaginary stain Hongbin just made up for no reason because he gets really nervous really fast. “Let me… uh…” He pushes to his feet and walks, to supposedly clean Taekwoon's face, rub his thumb on the man's cheek a few times.

His skin is really smooth. “There.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Are you going to stay here? I can bring you something on my way back.” Taekwoon offers, nicely, he makes Hongbin think of Hakyeon, but whereas Hakyeon is loud and invasive and annoying, Taekwoon is really quiet and he speaks like he's whispering and it's… kind of soothing to be around him even if he’s still really damn nervous… _Holy shit socializing is so hard._

It makes him feel weirdly young in a not entirely bad way. “No I'm… I'll be okay.”

“Okay. But don't forget to eat something, it's important.” Hongbin nods more because he wants Taekwoon to leave than because he is actually listening to him.

He sits once Taekwoon finally steps out. Hongbin can hear him humming in the hallway.

He takes a deep breath.

And then exhales.

 

 

 

~×~

 

 

 

 

He spends the rest of the day in Taekwoon's presence, telling himself he had a deal with Jaehwan, even if it was clear by then that Taekwoon would be fine on his own.

He didn’t touch his papers again.

Taekwoon’s talk about family really threw him off. Above anything else he is trying to name what is Taekwoon trying to achieve with this.

It's already late at night when Taekwoon finally sits back and stretches. “You're going to bed?” Hongbin risks to ask and Taekwoon turns to him. Red eyes leaving the pod he had been working on, despite the girl's insistence that they could handle on their own Taekwoon was one to check things regardless.

“Not yet… but you can go. It's pretty late.”

“I'm fine.” A pause. “What are you doing?”

“Making adaptations so we can use the batteries we have on board.” Taekwoon tells him in that airy but undoubtedly tired voice of his. “I made a deal with supervisor Han, I can work on the pod but one of them has to go out next time. I'm sure she'll volunteer.”

“Is that a problem?” Hongbin comments, it's getting colder now the filter is working.

“It’s not safe.” He sighs. “And she's so young, I'm sure she got promoted recently.”

“We're always understaffed here.” He comments idly, as Taekwoon wobbles up to his feet. He was sitting for a long time. “People get promotions but it doesn't mean all that much. The Initiative is looking for excuses to shut our base off but Hakyeon is too smart and too charismatic, we've been working on the _one more incursion_ excuse for five years now.”

“Hakyeon told me everybody down here came to the Nautilus to run away from something.” He starts and Hongbin hums.

“Is that your case too?” Taekwoon looks up and Hongbin is already staring at him for a few minutes now. “Are you running away from something?”

“Maybe I am.” It's all Taekwoon tells him, looking down at the dirt on his hands, smelling like lubricant seaweed and rust. “I’m just trying to do one thing at a time.”

“That’s a good plan.”

“What about you?” Taekwoon walks to a box on the side of the room, the temperature here only seemed to make the smell of his deodorant seem stronger. He returns with too bottles in his hands, placing one beside Hongbin.

It’s alcohol.

But Hongbin doesn’t drink. “No thanks. I don’t drink during work hours.” Taekwoon gives him a funny looking smile, as if he finds him amusing.

“Work hours end at seven p.m. It’s midnight.” Taekwoon says, quite cheekily. Hongbin wonders if all the kids from the 90’s have this trait in them of if Hakyeon and Taekwoon are an exception. He takes an unapologetic swing, as if to make a point, sitting some feet away from Hongbin, on the floor.

Eyes closed, the drink seems cold.

Well it’s not like he has anything else to do and he… Well he stayed here because he wanted to. It’s an easy way out. “ _Fine_.” He uses the edge of the hoodie to unscrew the cap of the bottle off and Taekwoon snickers quietly at that. “What?”

“Nothing. Didn’t think you’d actually do it.” He laughs when Hongbin arches a brow. “You didn’t strike me as the kind to break rules.”

“Are you?”

“Depends on my motivation.” Taekwoon scoffs a little laugh again and maybe the look Hongbin fixes him is not all that judgemental as he intended but he’s really in no position to lecture anyone considering the things he already did in life.

“Oh, what a rebel we have here my _god_.” Taekwoon looks at him from under his lashes, spinning the half-full bottle between his fingers, he has a nice smile but it always comes out shy even when it probably isn’t. He looks down too much. “Are you part of the bad ass club? 'Cuz you should totally apply.” The measured sip he takes from his beer doesn’t impress Taekwoon much, but again, he isn’t trying to impress anyone.

“Shut up.” There’s no bite in Taekwoon’s voice and Hongbin is glad for it, he is content as it is… With things as they are. “Were you always this bitter or was it Hakyeon’s influence who made you go bad?”

He makes a sounds, swallowing down the liquid on his mouth before speaking, without thinking his words much. “I’m pretty.” He says, without context and Taekwoon arches a brow in silent question. “What? You thought I didn’t know? I know.” A scoff. “If I was nice too I wouldn’t have peace at all.”

“I’m starting to think you’re not as naive as I was led to believe.”

“I never said I was naive. It’s the dimples.” Hongbin says with a smile, as if to illustrate his words.

“You’re secretly a jerk oh no.” Taekwoon laughs out loud, Hongbin scoffs a little chuckle of his own. This is surprisingly easy. “Now tell me, were you one of those guys in college? You know the kind, the one that went around messing around with all the girls but ran away from compromise like the plague?”

Hongbin hums and scrunches his nose. “None of your business.”

“Come _on_ ~ I won’t tell on you.” Taekwoon shakes his head as he speaks, his hair becoming messy again, he looks really soft for a grown man. “I mean, I guess I was? But like, I have so many problems with expectations and stuff… Relationships are kinda… You know giving things names is so–”

“Fucking suffocating.” Taekwoon nods in agreement. “Yeah I know…” He takes another swing of the bottle, that faint familiar buzz settling on the back of his brain. He should have eaten something.

“Yeah…” Taekwoon exhales, rising his eyes for the first time in the last few minutes and Hongbin really likes the way his cheeks turn pink, as a conjunction between the heat and the alcohol.

“Was that why your fling with Hakyeon went to shit?” Questions, questions, questions. He isn’t in any position to make questions like this but it doesn’t seem wrong and Taekwoon can tell him to go fuck himself if he so wants.

“Nah, Hakyeon requires an amount of time and patience I can’t offer.” Taekwoon looks a little apologetic about it. “I have my work and sometimes… I don’t know, I forgot he was there? Like I was so damn focused on my work, on my projects, I had no space on my brain to remember I maybe should… I don’t know, ask him on a date? Introduce him to my family? Remember to call him or answer his messages during the day, send photos of my lunch, remind him I loved him even if it was clear to me that I did… He gets real nasty when he’s angry.”

“I’ve experienced some things like that.” Taekwoon sighs and Hongbin thinks, not for the first time, that they have a surprisingly lot in common. “I interned here when I first got out of college and like, I had a girlfriend at the time, things got messy really fast. Everyday I was so busy I had no energy to call her, I couldn’t even tell what time it was, what day even. She got fed up pretty fast.”

“I knew Hakyeon went away without telling me because he was still mad at me. I thought it was better like this, not having to deal with departures. He would cry and I don’t deal well with crying people.” He finishes the last of his bottle and looks up, his eyes turning up to the ceiling. “I could justify myself saying we would both be happier like this.”

“You bailed.”

“I bailed real hard.” Taekwoon chuckles shyly.

“I had my fair share of bails too, don’t worry.”

“Like that day you were spying on me and Wonshik?” Taekwoon sounds so conversational, so casual, but Hongbin chokes on his drink nonetheless. “I worked on robotics, had some filaments installed on my retina... I can see very well in the dark.”

“I don’t– I mean–” Taekwoon leaves him to struggle with his words, eyes only partially focused on him. “Why… Haven’t you said anything?”

“I didn’t mind the audience… I was really mad that day, not even at you specifically, just mad in general.” He shrugs. “Besides I wanted to know what you’d do if I pretended I didn't know. I’m shocked to know you’re actually a softie. But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone… I’m no snitch.”

“I was… I–” Taekwoon says nothing and he suddenly rises to his feet. “I should go.”

“Be careful with those–”

“I’ll see you around.” The urge to simply evade Taekwoon completely is so strong Hongbin is unaware of the open panels, Taekwoon is the one to pull him away from them before Hongbin steps on something really dangerous and potentially lethal.

He doesn’t see much.

He’s walking.

Something stops him.

Taekwoon’s chest on his back and his own panicked heartbeat on his ears.

Sparks everywhere.

_Is this a metaphor? We will never know._

He freezes up. “Beware of the wires.” Taekwoon’s voice startles him back into reality. He kicked a bottle of something ( _his unfinished beer, his brain belatedly informs_ ) and now the whole thing is popping like fireworks.

_Nice._

If Taekwoon is mad he doesn’t show it. “I-I’m sorry I wasn’t–”

“It’s fine, just calm down.” Taekwoon holds his hands for they are shaking, firm… cold. And they face each other. “Breathe, it’s okay.”

On the back of his brain he remembers this isn't really appropriate… Allowing co-workers to hold his hands and all, it's… really unprofessional but– Taekwoon’s eyes spark some unwanted heat on the back of his neck. They look intense but there's no unnecessary depth to them…

They are close and the worst of it all is that he knows if Taekwoon made a move on him right _on that moment_. He would follow along.

His eyes fall to Taekwoon's parted lips for a split second. Well _, fuck._

“I guess I should call it a day. It’s late already.” He sighs, releasing Hongbin’s hands to go get the bottle lying on the floor and take it away. Thankfully the spell is broken. He can breathe again. “Yeah I… I think you should.” Hongbin gives himself the trouble to voice, aware of himself and suddenly nervous again. “Again I'm… I'm really sorry.” He is not one to drag things like this and he knows his motivations, knows his own flaws way too way too much to mistake this by anything else. _Shit Hongbin not now._

“Next time at least finish your beer before escaping.” Taekwoon tells him from over his shoulder, placing the now almost completely empty bottle over the table, turning off the power of the secondary equipments. The emergency lights go off instantly, the weaker ones.

“Next time?”

“Hm, I'm just saying.” Taekwoon amends quickly, probably noticing the implications of his words. “It's not like I'm implying we have to, but you're nice to talk to. I wouldn't oppose drinking with you again.” He scratches his neck like he is trying not to sound weird but the more he speaks the worse it gets. “Forget it, it's not really–”

“I’m not nice. I mean not at all… But like, you're not… uh… unbearable to be around, I think... I spent the whole day here and I only thought about hitting you once.” Hongbin says in a mild joke to break this awful tension between them, he's still too focused on the man's eyes, and gladly Taekwoon seems to take the easy way out for both of them. He chuckles, ducking his head as it's customary of him.

“Go to bed you stupid brat.”

“Don't tell me what to do _grandpa_.”

Not tonight it seems.

Taekwoon scoffs a little laugh of disbelief and Hongbin immediately skimpers away, tiptoeing around the electrified puddle on the floor and running all the way up to the living quarters, inside his room, kicking the bed and cursing out loud.

Well that was… uh… something.

 


	7. Chapter 7

He dozed off.

He dozed off and he's… What time is it now? Something cold touches his cheek and he stirs awake.

“ _What the fuck Sanghyuk_ …” He mumbles through the fog of unconsciousness. Blinking his bleary eyes to the darkness of the room. The lights must have turn off on their own. “ _I told not to_ –”

“Hi. Go to bed.” _Taekwoon…?_

_What… is… he doing here…?_

“Why are you here...?”

Taekwoon stuffs his hands back into his pockets. “I was just going to that room under the stairs to get some spare parts. You were snoring.”

“I was _not_. I _don't_ snore.”

“Yeah you don't.” He scoffs a smile. “Don't sleep here though, it's cold and you should sleep on your own bed.”

“I… Yeah, I… thanks.”

Taekwoon gives this little friendly tap on his arm and smiles. “You're welcome.” He is walking out but Hongbin feels pressure to say something instead.

“Hey, where did you–” Taekwoon looks over his shoulder and Hongbin stumbles over the fact that he has no reason to keep him here at all. He wants to be… somewhat nice at least. “Where you said you're going again?”

“Get spare parts.”

“You… want some help? I mean, I want to… uh… thank you for giving yourself the trouble of waking me and shit.” He makes a dismissive hand gesture or what he supposes it's a dismissive hand gesture and Taekwoon makes this small contemplative sound that sounds really soft as most things about him are.

If he wasn't such a brute with things Hongbin would be convinced already. “I'm fine.”

“You sure? I could help you carry the boxes. I know those things are heavy and knowing you you'll probably try to carry it all at once.” _Are you insisting Lee Hongbin? Since when you do that?_  “I mean, you don't _have_ to but… I'm offering, right?”

“I suppose you are. You promise you'll go to bed once we're done?”

“Yeah I mean… I don't think I'd be capable of doing too much now. I'm exhausted.” Taekwoon makes a face or as much as a face someone like him can make. “ _Not_ exhausted enough I can't help.”

“I won't carry you to your room just so you know.”

“Shut up before I change my mind.” He grumbles, pushing up from the chair waiting for Taekwoon to lead the way. “What are you working on either way.”

“If I said it's super dangerous illegal stuff, would you believe me?”

“No.”

Taekwoon laughs quietly and starts walking. “I'm just changing some settings and adapting the batteries.” Now that's believable. “Need some spare parts to replace the damaged ones and a few other small changes.”

“You usually try to make yourself sound cool?” Hongbin stuffs his hands into his coat's pockets, finding a few coins and a short cable he doesn't have an immediate use for. Looking at the scar Taekwoon has on his nape and wondering if it's the same one Jaehwan has.

For old Federation workers, when they take the small… how they call it? A _mod_ was it? He could be wrong...When they take the mod out they remove all the information of the time you worked for them, that's what people say.

_To keep sensitive information private and safe_.

That's the justification.

“Well I'm older than you, isn't that my job?”

“I thought your job was fixing machines, grandpa.” Taekwoon throws him a look, one that says he has only one strike left before suffering some sort of retaliation.

“It’s this sass of yours that should be fixed.” Taekwoon comments lightly, popping some candy he took from his pocket right into his mouth. Hongbin tries not to scoff.

But he scoffs anyway.

They finally reach the ominous (and really fucking narrow) door under the stairs and Taekwoon pushes it open and walks inside like he owns the entire thing and that's, in fact, his room. “What are we looking for?”

“A stabilizer, two CV8.94 cables, a coil model PR 00.8 and if possible a couple pieces of copper pipe with 5x9 inches each.” Hongbin raises a brow. “Hey, you asked kid.”

“I'll sit here and wait then.”

Taekwoon hums in acceptance, and Hongbin pulls a card box from a corner. There's plenty pieces of _trash_ , oh no, wait _excuse me -spare parts- in here_. “Can I empty this box? We can use to carry the things back.”

Taekwoon is crouching in front of a box. It's really cramped in here and the orange light hanging precariously from a wire in the ceiling keeps flicking like some sort of horror movie. “Sure, just don't mix the things inside with anything else. “ Comes the belated answer.

“How can you make any sense out of this? I mean this things barely even look safe, let alone _useful._ ”

“Machines make much more sense than people.” He sits too and Hongbin comes to notice maybe this space is too small for them both to be in. “I’m not really that good with words, I'm better with numbers but… I really like to know that unlike people, machines can always be fixed.” He makes a pause. “I don't know it sounds stupid when I say it.”

It doesn't sound _too_ stupid. _Idealistic?_ Yes. _Stupid?_ No, not really. “What about you?” Hongbin looks up at that. “You don't seem all that fond of people. Why would you work with genetics?”

“Because we're flawed, primitive, self-destructive creatures and animals aren't.”  Hongbin answers easily. Taekwoon turns to him for a second so he'll keep talking before continuing his search. “We are fragile… every step we make in evolution brings one step back on adaptability. I like to think we could be better, more like… other creatures. Live longer, live better, evolve to something more than… this thing we are.” He sighs, none of this sounds like anything that makes sense. “There are animals outside capable of doing so much we are… We pale in comparison.”

“Like what?”

“Like… the jellyfish I'm studying.” Taekwoon hums as he speaks and he could speak for a long time. “When times of shortages come, when it is stressed or threatened it can revert itself to an earlier stage of it's own life and then… well not exactly but in broad terms it can live forever.”

“That’s cool.”

“Now think of what we could do as a species if we were capable of entering stasis during shortages. There are many animals who can do the same... like the tardigrade, if we as humans could do it, could simulate this thing. We wouldn't have to die so much, the population could be kept in stasis instead of simply dying.” He breathes in. “There is so much we could do to change everything, so much… It's not really about _people_ it's about– I don't know, the possibilities? I like to think we could be better.”

“You're quite passionate about it.”

“I… I really love my job.” It's a little sheepish but it's true. There are few things he likes more than he likes his job. “I can't see myself doing anything else.”

“Yeah, neither can I.”

A beat of silence passes, the clanking of metal being the only sounds in the room aside from Taekwoon's humming. “You do hum a lot.”

“Does it bother you?”

“Not really.”

“Good. I wouldn't stop either way.”

“Asshole.” Taekwoon chuckles lightly and Hongbin goes back to touching around the box until he touches something sharp and pricks his finger. “ _Shit._ ”

“What?”

“Just my finger… well, fuck.”

Taekwoon makes a maneuver to turn around in this confined space without dropping any boxes, searching around his pockets among many candy wrappers and crumpled little papers with scribbles on them. He fishes two little packages. “Are your vaccines alright?”

“Yeah, I won't die or anything.” Taekwoon grabs his wrist quietly and sure he could ask but he won't just yet. Instead he sees Taekwoon ripping one of the packages open with his teeth and pulling a single disposable paper towel doused in antiseptic… it smells strongly like iodine and alcohol.

It surprises him how gentle he is when he dabs the thing to his finger. “Wonshik makes me carry these around now. He says I injure myself too often.” He comments almost shyly. “That kid worries too much.”

The other package contains a small band-aid with cats printed all over. Hongbin is positive this part was Jaehwan's idea. He stays quiet as Taekwoon carefully taps the corners to make sure the whole thing is secured in place. “All better.”

“Thanks…”

“You're welcome, kid.”

“I'm not a kid I'm twenty six goddamn it.” Hongbin grumbles, pacified by the band aid on his finger and the reminder of how cold Taekwoon's hands are.

He almost forgot that.

“How should I call you then?”

“I don't know… Just call me Kong like everyone else.”

“I could… If you called me hyung.”

“What the fuck.”

Taekwoon chuckles. “It's true, I am your hyung aren't I?”

“That's fucking stupid. You're only three years older.”

“Hey, fair's fair.”

“Okay, _fine_ … _Hyung_.” He makes a face. “Fucking fetish for power that's what it is. Stupid.”

Taekwoon chuckles again and Hongbin looks down at his finger again, that unwanted stiffness settling on his shoulders. He feels stupid, he hasn't called anyone _hyung_ since he was sixteen and fuck Hakyeon will give him hell if he knows about it.

_Shit_.

Up from this close he can see the small beauty mark under Taekwoon's eye. It's kinda cute… like the way he purses his lips and mumbles the names of things under his breath as he pokes around the boxes.

This man is a real problem.

“Okay found it.” He says suddenly and Hongbin jumps a little. He has been busy aimlessly counting his lashes up until now. “Carry these for me.” He pushes a small box until it bumps against Hongbin's calves.

Then he picks another box (one considerably larger) and gets up. “I think you're calling me weak.”

“Am I?” Taekwoon blinks innocently and Hongbin squints in answer picking the small box and proceeding into trying to leave the room through the narrow door before Taekwoon does and successfully brushing against him in a (what to him is) a very unappropriated way but Taekwoon doesn't seem to pay much attention to as he walks out right after him and closes the door.

“So…” He starts talking to fill the silence and maybe distract himself a little from the fact that should maybe have some more composure from now on. “Where are you taking those?”

“The machinery room.”

“Alright.”

They're steps make too much noise on this empty hallways, this empty _floor_. Hongbin is pretty sure they must be the only ones still here at 2A.M.

The panels still blink in black and yellow those bold words:  _RESURFACING PROCESS._

On every panel.

All the way to the machinery room.

“Are you going to work still or are you going to bed?” He asks as Taekwoon types the code on the locked door. Hongbin often forgets that door must remain locked when there's nobody there.

“Just gonna see if this pieces fit. If they do I'll continue tomorrow.”

“You should sleep too.”

“I will, don't worry.”

Hongbin is not even remotely convinced. “Yeah, sure.”

Taekwoon places the box down with a loud thud and cracks his spine back into place. “Ow, my back...”

“Should’ve let me help.” Hongbin is that person, he is the definition of the _I warned you_ person. It's him.

“I'm fine.”

“I'm sure.” Taekwoon comes to the his box from him but Hongbin refuses to be agreeable and goes to put the box down himself, the stupid ridiculous tiny box. _Whatever okay._ “I'm going to bed, don't work too much.”

“I won't.” Taekwoon smiles a little sheepish smile, the smile of someone who's not used to this kind of thing. “Good night, Kong.”

“Yeah, you too… Hyung.”

 

~×~

 

Hongbin wakes at nine o'clock in the morning. That's what? Six? Seven hours of sleep?

More than usual.

His eyes fall to his folded arms and then to his hands, ending on the small colorful band-aid with cats printed all over and his foggy mind drifts to Taekwoon for a second… His long clumsy hands trying to be gentle with him, tapping lightly around the wound. It's a horrible comparison but his grandma used to do the same.

It's nice of him… To help.

The panel beside the bed blinks with an unanswered call from the lab. He taps the recall button and waits.

One of the interns comes to pick the interphone so Sanghyuk must be having breakfast still. “Laboratory. How can I help?”

“It's Hongbin. Why'd call me?” He mumbles as he sits up.

“We found Percival dead this morning.”

_Well fuck._

_He knew this was going to happen but even so… Shit, they didn't get the gene to survive outside the host._ “ _Fuck…_ Did you warn Sanghyuk?”

“We couldn't contact him, I think he's on the cafeteria, sir.”

“I'll look for him. Put the corpse in the freezer to avoid putrefaction and seal it airtight. You know the drill, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Good. I'll be there in a second.” He hops off the bed and fishes the first hoodie and pair of pants he touches inside the wardrobe, his hair is still a little moist from the bath he took before coming to bed but at least he won't have to worry about taking a bath _now._

He runs down the hall.

Sanghyuk is standing in line to get coffee. “Hyuk-ah~” he just got his hands into a cup of coffee and he looks a little dead inside still. “Percival died.”

He makes a face Hongbin can very much identify with. “Well good morning to us.” Hongbin hums in agreement. “What do you want?”

“The usual.” He watches Sanghyuk pushing the faded _black tea_ button and handing Hongbin the paper cup.

“What happened to your finger?”

“Hm?” _Oh_ , oh yeah that's a thing. “Oh, nothing just a scratch.”

The idea was to sit somewhere quiet and leave just as fast to attend to the situation regarding Percival's death. But Jaehwan is already waving like a cheerleader and everybody is watching and if they ignore that Jaehwan will be so mad… Well damn.

“Morning my two favorite biologists.” Jaehwan winks playfully, sipping his presynthetized juice out if a straw.

“If Hakyeon was here you'd be screwed.” Hongbin says, sipping his tea and stealing one of Sanghyuk's sugar biscuits. Sanghyuk almost hisses at him.

As per usual. “What happened to your finger Hongbinnie?”

“Nothing.” He'll probably go through this same question many times today. He's already preparing his patience.

“This band-aid… I'm almost certain I gave it to Taekwoonie the last time I saw him.”

Hongbin sips his tea as inconspicuously as possible. “Oh yeah?”

“Talking about Taekwoon, there he is.” Sanghyuk points and pointing is rude but they're all rude so screw it. “He looks tired.”

Taekwoon crosses the room silently to get a cup of coffee. It's pretty late already, mostly everyone already got their things so it doesn't take long for him to get it, along with a few packages of sugar he haphazardly opens and dumps into the cup carelessly. He's such a brute.

Hongbin glances at his finger once again. _Well… not always._

Wonshik approaches him quietly just a second later. “Morning sunshine.” He slaps Taekwoon's ass like it's nothing and maybe it isn't because Taekwoon doesn't even flinch, he throws his fringe back and continues to indiscriminately rip the last few packages open.

“Morning, Shikkie.”

They are close enough for the table to hear them talking and Hongbin sips his tea nervously again. Well this feels weird. “Have you slept?”

“A little, yeah.”

“Knowing you that means no.”

Jaehwan is too friendly. Really… _Really._ “Taekwoonnie, Wonshikkie~ Come sit with the cool kids.” A little pause happens. “Okay maybe not Hongbin but come either way~”

Jaehwan throws him a wink and Hongbin tries not to look too judgemental. It's too early in the morning. Wonshik comes first with something on a plate and a cup of juice similar to Jaehwan's. It smell like chemical orange. “Morning.” He smiles, friendly, awkward friendly but friendly.

Hongbin keeps his thoughts to himself for a change.

Taekwoon comes right after, with a yawn and a barely whispered _morning_.

Again, Hongbin keeps his thoughts to himself. They would never let him live if he ever mentioned seeing Taekwoon, let alone _hey I thought I had told you not to work until too late you piece of shit._ “Where's Hakyeon?”

“Having breakfast on his office. He was looking for you Wonshik.” Jaehwan informs casually.

“Me? I'll be on the machinery room today. Taekwoon asked for help with some things."

“I'll tell him.”

“Thanks.”

“We should go.” Surprisingly it's Sanghyuk who says that. “Our lab rat died and we need to take some action.”

“Okay.” Jaehwan glances at Hongbin who's still sipping tea silently.

“Be careful, kids.” Taekwoon mumbles the words softly and again, no acid commentary comes from Hongbin.

That's not natural. “Are you okay, Binnie?” Jaehwan finally as he and Sanghyuk push themselves up.

Hongbin just nods a few times, licking his lips like the nervous creature he is. “Yeah. M’fine.”

“You sure? You're pretty quiet today.”

“Thinking about work.” He justifies hurriedly. “Have to go. Bye.”

And then he and Sanghyuk are gone. Hongbin's hoodie has a stupid cartoonist hare printed on the back and Jaehwan thinks it's really fitting.

Sanghyuk is quiet the whole way to the lab but he knows, he _knows_ he has questions to ask, in a passive aggressive fashion, as he sips his the last of his cup  of coffee without really saying anything and waiting for Hongbin to talk without asking anything.

It seems to work when Hongbin finally sighs, and then asks. “What do you want Sanghyuk?”

“Nothing I mean, is there anything for me to want?” Hongbin throws him a little glance. “So like, are you okay and all?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing new?”

“No.”

“You sure? Cuz’ you seemed pretty nervous during breakfast.”

He sighs, spots sorting papers and finally, finally stops to properly face Sanghyuk as they speak. “I’m trying not to be a douche.”

“You’re not a douche.”

“Yes I am, Sanghyuk. You’re just disensitized because you work with me and it was either that or stabbing me in the eye with a exacto knife.”

“Woah, that’s harsh.” Hongbin hums dismissively. “What prompted this? You never gave a shit about what anybody thinks of you.”

“I still don’t but I was talking to Taekwoon the other day and I… It came to my mind that maybe there’s still people that take the shit I say seriously and gets like… sad. I don’t want to make people _sad_ I just don’t want to be _friends_ and shit.”

“You mean Wonshik?”

“Yeah…”

“So Taekwoon gave you a reality check?” Hongbin mumbles that it’s _something like that, yeah_. That’s not exactly how it went, Taekwoon never said he was a piece of shit to his face exactly but it had the same effect. Saying he was a piece of shit deliberately knowing he was _in the vicinities_ creeping in the shadows like fucking batman or whatever. “Are you and Taekwoon friends now? Cuz you were very much staring don’t think I didn’t notice.”

“No.”

“No what?

“No, we’re not friends.”

“You have a crush on him then?”

“No.”

Sanghyuk makes a sound, the sound that signifies he will be insufferable in his last statement. Hongbin stops touching his papers of he’ll throw something, probably. “It seems like a crush to me, you know.” Again he passively aggressively takes a sip of his coffee.

Again Hongbin sighs. He sounds absolutely monotonical when he speaks. “I think he's hot.” He doesn't suppress a smile when Sanghyuk unapologetically chokes on his small cup of coffee. “I feel better now, thanks.”

“ _You think he's what?_ ” His sound sounds too high pitched to be normal, but Hongbin is not worried. They're the only ones in this section of the lab this early. “ _Did you just use the word hot to describe another human?_ ” It seems like this was all aimless teasing and he didn’t expect this at all.

Hongbin is a little accomplished despite his ever present annoyance. “Y'all make me feel like I'm actually Satan, are you aware of this?”

“Dude, what the fuck? I thought you didn't like _people_.” Sanghyuk squeezed the paper cup too harshly it seems because he's suddenly cursing and there's coffee on the floor. Hongbin only mildly thinks he's not the one who'll clean this shit. “Since when you think people are… what fuck– _hot?_ Is _hot_ even part of your vocabulary?”

“My work space and my private life are two things I don't tend to mix.” He shrugs. “As I said, It’s not a crush at all but he’s hot.”

“Dude! I'm– I think that's the realest talk we've ever had.” Sanghyuk sits down by the counter, in one of the small benches. He looks shocked. “So you're not like… a virgin and shit? Because I mean, we all thought–”

“This is still none of your business.”

“Come on~ I've been dying to know that for four years now.”

Hongbin makes a face. “That's really fucking creepy I hope you know that.”

“I thought we were bros you know. I've told you about all the girls I've dated–”

“And I told you that was unappropriated every time.”

“–Why can't you tell me about this one harmless information about yourself?”

“Because it's none of your goddamn business. Why would you even want to know?” He throws the empty cup on the trash and puts his lab coat on, going for the disposable latex gloves. Unfortunately, Sanghyuk follows right after him. “Come on, Kong. What can be so bad you don't want to mention it once? Don't make me start guessing.”

Hongbin scoffs. “You can guess, I don't care.”

“Hongbin~”

“Stop whining, oh my god.” Sanghyuk makes a face and Hongbin is pretty sure he must be pouting. “Go get Percival's body in the freezer, that's much more important.” The sudden and unexpected death of Percival was a huge issue. It meant they lost the gene they wanted to isolate and there was low chances of salvaging anything. They would try though.

Defeated but not resigned, Sanghyuk leaves, for now. Hongbin almost regrets telling him anything. It was meaningless information, just to take him off his back. Now he's even more on his back.

_Aish_.

Luckily no more questions come during the day, it's lunchtime when Hakyeon comes hopping downstairs two steps at a time. Weird seeing him here personally.

_Did something happened?_ “Hakyeon?” He was just passing by, but Hongbin's sudden call put a halt to his step, he seems to be in a hurry. “Is there something wrong?”

“No. I'm looking for Wonshik actually, he's not in the greenhouse.” He supplies, passing the pages of the file he has on his hands hastily. Sanghyuk pokes his head out of the freezer to speak. “Jaehwan told me he’d be down here.”

“Couldn't you have just used the interphone?” Hongbin is trying to make a very aimless question but Hakyeon groans and it doesn’t seem like the pleased groan, it's the fucking pissed as fuck groan. “Sorry?”

“That piece of shit doesn't pick up my calls. If he's not dead I'm gonna flip.” Hongbin blinks, he thinks of who would ultimately win if he and Taekwoon decided to kill each other and he comes to the conclusion he definitely would bet on Hakyeon.

 

_Software upgraded. All active personnel, please re-upload ID card information on any available scanners._

 

“What?” Sanghyuk squints at the speakers, the cold voice of the internal navigator system sounding on every room inside the base in a loud echo. “He upgraded the software? Isn't that illegal or something?” Hongbin stops when Sanghyuk says that, he suddenly remember of Taekwoon’s words the night before.

_If I said it's super dangerous illegal stuff, would you believe me?_

“ _Holy shit…_ ” Luckily, Hakyeon is too distracted to notice him cursing. Sanghyuk is already pressing his numbers on the side panel.

 

_Please, input vocal confirmation staff member 950782_

 

“This is Dr.Han Sanghyuk. Assistant-biologist.” The customary green light lights up. It's been almost an year since Hongbin last did this. “Designated section: Research Laboratory, genetics and pathology.”

 

_Welcome aboard Biologist Han._

 

“Are you okay Hakyeon?”

“How could he… Upload the software… Without triggering the alarms…” Hakyeon looks like he just saw a ghost, Hongbin is not sure of how he feels about that but it’s not good.

“ _Hakyeon._ ” Finally Hakyeon looks at him. “What's up? Did we do something illegal?” Sanghyuk has both hands stuffed inside his pockets but he doesn’t seem worried.

Hongbin on the other hand...

“Yes I– Why aren’t we... This software is integrated to both the Initiative and the Federation. We… need their approval to operate so we have an ingrained firewall to keep operators from making modifications on the system… This is… It shouldn't even be possible. The moment the system detects any attempt at hacking it fires all the alarms.”

Hongbin lacks the eloquence to respond properly to that. “That sounds bad…”

“It's not just bad it's unconstitutional. It's under crimes against order, it's _terrorism._ ”

Sanghyuk scowls. “That's harsh. I mean he just uploaded the software, right?”

“We could all go to martial court for that. The fundamentalist would have anyone involved in the procedure killed– _Holy fuck, Taekwoon could be executed_.” The sudden impact of his own words seem to reach Hakyeon then. He is pressing the button of the interphone a second later. “ _Taekwoon you better come here right now or will fucking push you out in the ocean._ ”

The answer comes when Taekwoon gives himself the trouble of pressing the interphone button and answer the call. “What are you doing on the lab?”

“What the fuck did you do?!”

“Hold for a second, I'm going to meet you in there. Your office is too far away.” And then silence.

Silence and Hakyeon walking around the hallway impatiently. Hongbin fell quiet after he mentioned executions and went back to work (or at least he looks like he's working). Potentially this could get nasty.

Time rolls by in the same fashion it does when there's people drowning, effectively it takes around five minutes but it feels like forever. “Hakyeon.” _Finally, Taekwoon comes, and Hongbin spares him a nervous glance from his chair._

“How did you change any settings without triggering the alarms?” Sanghyuk discreetly glances at the door when Hakyeon says that, no preambles it seems. Hongbin stops typing for a second.

“The battery issue was part of the protocol for default system requirements, but it had no real reason to be active. To change the hardware I had to get permission from the navigator to change things manually.” Hakyeon takes a breath to interrupt him but Taekwoon goes on before he has the chance to. “I know that's not what you asked let me finish. I helped programming this software when I worked with the Federation. I know the protocols, it only turns hostile if I actively tried to force entry which wasn't the case. I'm not fucking stupid and I didn't try to change or extract the matrix code, just some superficial information like the default system requirements and the energy consumption directrix.”

“You took part in the creation of the Federation's security AI?” Hakyeon looks incredulous and Hongbin can't really say why, he knows very little about that program, just that it exists and it is meant to protect all portables and authorized systems the Federation owns. Virtually every portable belongs to them, after all this _is_ a totalitarian government.

“I worked for S.E.R.D, I thought it was obvious.” He pushes his perpetually stained fingers into his pockets and Hakyeon seems to have lost his words there for a second. “Can I go now?”

“This breach could have you executed.” He is frowning then but Taekwoon seems be aware of this already.

“I know.”

“How do you even remember that if all the sensitive information was stored into that awful mod-whatever on your neck?”

“There was a few things they had to leave or it would cause brain damage. They made me sign a contract.” He shrugs. “The idea was to make me go back eventually.”

“Be careful Taekwoon, please.” Hakyeon sighs. “Try not to bring their all-seeing eyes to us. We run on too much irregularities to go through any inspection.”

“I know. I have no plans of changing anything else.”

“Drop by my office later. I have something important to discuss with you.”

“Can't we discuss it now?” It seems like Taekwoon's patience for walking all the way up to Hakyeon's office is as small as Hongbin's own.

“No. Now go back to work.”

A sigh. “Okay boss.”

Hongbin lowers his head, blinks at the band-aid on his finger and continues typing.

His palms feel sweaty.


	8. Chapter 8

Hongbin has been tapping the tip of his pen on the table for the last ten minutes or so and it's really starting to grate at Sanghyuk's nerves by now. “Dude, stop that.”

Hongbin does stop but only so he can say. “Let's call it a night Hyuk, we won't make any more progress on Percival's case tonight.”

“Yeah I've been trying to name a single procedure for us to do but I don't think there _is_ any. Not a truly effective one; it's all… Possibilities.” Sanghyuk presses at his temples, he has been looking at the screen for three hours now and he is no closer to a solution than he was in the beginning of the day.

“I just can't shake off the feeling this is somehow my fault.”

Sanghyuk sighs, shakes his head and throws the portable unit he had been holding over the table. “We all knew this could happen. It's unstable mutation.” Hongbin is not all that convinced. “There was nothing you could do, even if you were here, we don't have the tools to force suspension on board.”

“Even so. If I was here we could have saved some living blood samples, some tissue at least… I could have thought of something.”

“This would all be temporary… it would buy us just a few more hours. We need to stabilize the gene before trying to mutate any hosts.”

“I _know_ but… I feel like I failed.” He throws the pen over the table or he would start tapping it again, his bones click back in place when he stretches.

“We all did. We're a team… You're just a guy, Kong. Besides failure is part of creation.” Sanghyuk is quite level headed, Hongbin always found that impressive for someone so young. “We’re doing something really big here… We can't lose focus.”

“Yeah, I know… I must be tired.” It's an excuse, it feels like one at least. But as they are now, there is very little they can do other than give excuses.

Try to keep themselves motivated. “Let's call it a night.”

“I'll just finish this analysis, I'm almost done. Go ahead I'll lock everything up.”

“You’ll be okay on your own, man?”

“Yeah, don't worry. I'm fucking tired, won't last much longer.” He offers a tired sigh, blinking slowly for tomorrow is another busy day, his head is feeling heavy.

“Kay’ see you tomorrow then.”

“Night.”

“Night.”

Sanghyuk's steps take a while to fade away. Hongbin looks down at his hands again, his wrists hurt after typing for so long… The little band-aid is still there, with cats printed all over it. He'll just finish this page and then he'll go.

He thinks of Hakyeon talking about execution, about _terrorism_ and his guts churn unpleasantly. It may be hunger… he hasn't eaten much today.

_Just this page._

_This page and he'll stop._

It's easier said than done, he can't really concentrate. His brain is scattered everywhere it seems… has been for the entire day. He thinks of Percival's death, of how close they are of finding a solution to this genetic sequence, of Taekwoon and _terrorism_ and _executions_ and cold hands and colorful printed band-aids.

He thinks of how tired he is.

And how he misses his grandma.

And how suddenly he misses the _sun_.

Misses not being under artificial lights all the time.

Knowing what's the weather...

_Is it summer now? Is it winter?_

_Everything feels the same here_.

One long… Endless… Tasteless… Night.

He closes the notebook, hands running over his face. That's enough he won't produce anything worth writing as he is now... So he pushes himself up, legs tingling from sitting down for so long. The light from the machinery room is still on, that ominous greenish glow.

Taekwoon must still be awake.

_Maybe they could talk._

He is exhausted but he is also agitated, too jittery to stay in bed.

“You shouldn't do anything illegal. People vanish you know.” That's how he ended up here, by the door, making Taekwoon jump like he just saw a ghost.

“You scared me…” He manages, a hand over his racing heart. It makes him think of Hakyeon when he does that, he's also too easy to sneak up on.

“Sorry.”

“It's just a little thing. I'm being cautious.”

“Hakyeon said they could charge you for terrorism.” He walks in slow steps to that same chair. The one that's always vacant and the one he always uses. “That'd be bad.”

“If they as much as suspected me they’d be here by now, using those electrified collars to subdue me.” Taekwoon sounds too nonchalant for Hongbin's tastes. “Like the disgusting little tyrants they are. But I wouldn't be executed, only lobotomized… It's in my rescission contract.”

“That sounds… brutal.”

“As the fundamentalists usually are. What is it kid? Worried about me?” He must mean it as a joke but Hongbin finds it a really unpleasant one.

“I don't want you dead are you fucking serious?” He scowls and Taekwoon looks a little apologetic already.

“I wasn't serious you know. Just a joke.”

“A fucking stupid one for that matter.” Taekwoon says he's sorry but Hongbin only mutters a half moody _yeah whatever_ and goes poking around the unidentified stains on his hoodie.

Taekwoon crouches in front of him as he would to a child and everything about the gesture annoys him impossibly. “No need to get all angry.”

“I'm not angry.”

“Yes you are. I said I was sorry.”

“And I said whatever. Let us both move on.”

“You're being difficult.”

“I _am_ difficult. You don't have to–” Taekwoon pets his hair and Hongbin shrinks into himself like a cat touched by a stranger for the first time. “Are your hands clean?”

“I was just messing on the portables the entire day… No oil.” He shows his other hand and as promised there's no oil there. Even so the whole motion feels weird and Hongbin finds himself growing more and more anxious as the seconds go by. Even if the feeling in itself is kind of soothing.

His sisters did that sometimes… Pet his hair, on the rare occasions he went to visit his parents when he was smaller. “Can you stop that now?”

“Your hair's really soft.” Taekwoon says, not unkindly, retreating the hand nonetheless. “It makes me think of my neighbor's cat.”

“That's weird… and kind of offensive.”

“It was the softest cat I ever petted. You're just as untrusting as Missy was.”

“You're comparing me to a cat named Missy I hope you see how weird that is.”

“It's a compliment you know.”

“I won't thank you for comparing me to a cat.”

“You don't have to.” Taekwoon smiles again and Hongbin makes a face. “Feeling better now? You look marginally less grumpy.”

“That's because I'm weirded out… You should think of that too.” Taekwoon chuckles and pushes himself up again, back to stacking boxes.

“I've heard you threw hot tea on someone's crotch after they touched you.” Taekwoon comments lightly as Hongbin shakes his hair back into place. “I'm flattered. You look almost docile.”

“Point A: He touched my ass; point B: I have no tea right now.” Taekwoon laughs again and Hongbin glances at him. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing.” There's something somewhat comforting about Taekwoon's presence, how he looks so much older and so much calmer than Hongbin himself. Not that this is any distinctive feat but it's… a different kind of calmness Sanghyuk has, a different kind from Hakyeon's too.

He's not like a parent it's more like… the neighbor who studies in a different school. Always at arm's reach, willing to give advice but… not part of his direct social circle either.

It's a funny feeling.

Hongbin never had any neighbors around his age so he may be wrong… He can't tell.

“How was the thing with your rat?” He pats off his clothes and Hongbin looks up, the light reflexes the particles of dust in the air.

“No progress. I think we'll have to start over.” He sighs, remembering his troubled thoughts.

“That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

Taekwoon leans against the table on the other side is the room and breathes out. He seems to be slightly out of breath, piling boxes around in the corners.

His hair is an absolute mess. “Your hair is looking funny.” Maybe he shouldn't have voice but he already did and Taekwoon is already running his fingers through it multiple times, parting his fringe with his pinky finger. “It’s still funny, here let me help. You can’t seem to do anything on your own…” Again there he goes, touch his co-worker for no real reason at all, mess his fringe a little and try to make some sense of his hair. “I see why Wonshik worries so much about you.”

“Because my hair looks funny?” Hongbin never appreciated wittiness, specially when it’s a so badly executed attempt. “I’m not a model, I’m an engineer.”

“Yeah, I see that.” He pokes the earring on Taekwoon’s ear and Taekwoon starts mumbling it was a present and he wears it for _emotional reasons_ but Hongbin couldn’t care less about that. “I don’t care, stop talking.”

“You kids are always so disrespectful… Wonshik’s just the same.” He almost pouts, clicking his tongue in mild annoyance and pinching the side of Hongbin’s neck half-heartedly. “Should respect your elders, you know.”

“Give me something to respect and I will.” Hongbin says, not unkindly, but Taekwoon looks bothered regardless. “Hey, look up. I’m trying to fix your hair, can’t do it with you looking at my shoes.”

“You’re still using that band-aid?”

“Yeah, I forgot about it.” _Oh_ _-ho, who’s trying to look cool now?_ “What about it?”

“It’s been a day already… Have you showered at all?” Taekwoon makes a face of slight judgement and Hongbin feels his cheeks heating up.

Well he can’t exactly tell he was being careful with it in the shower so it wouldn’t come off now can he? Especially after saying he _oh forgot about it_. Stupid, _stupid_. “Of course!” He slaps the side of Taekwoon’s arm maybe too hard because Taekwoon shrinks a little, mutters a quiet _ow_ under his breath. “What the hell.”

“Have you showered today?”

“I shower at night you idiot. Oh my god.” As retaliation he makes a mess out of Taekwoon’s hair again, and Taekwoon closes his eyes in silent acceptance, he didn’t care about any of that from the start.

His hair is actually very soft too… but he won’t compare him to a cat because screw _that_. “That explains why I never saw you in the communal bathrooms. I shower in the morning.” He says mindlessly, the messy hair looks good on him.

That was the diametrical opposite of the intention, but he could leave it like that. “I didn’t ask.”

“You never ask, I’m telling you either way.” He shakes the hair off his eyes.

“Why?”

“I think you’re funny. All nervous and stuff… like an alarm clock.” He smiles nicely. “With dimples.”

“That’s lame. You’re really lame you know that?”

Taekwoon tilts his head, a little quirk of his lips distracting Hongbin just a little. “But you’re smiling, I see dimples.” _Shit he’s cute._

_What the fuck._

“I’m the kind to laugh when I’m nervous.”

“Do I make you nervous Kong?”

“I’m always nervous.” Taekwoon chuckles, hands pressed together between his knees so naturally it seems like he does it all the time. Maybe he does how could he tell. “I’m a nervous creature, socially inapt and full of sarcasm in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I did. I just don’t mind it.”

“I think it has something to do with you dating Hakyeon and being used to worse.”

“I doubt, he was much sweeter in the past.” He sounds a little sheepish at the mention of his and Hakyeon’s past relationship, pulling at the sleeves of his shirt like a child. “But it’s past, we’re different people now.”

“You miss him?” _Invasive question_.

“No.”

“Why not?” _Very invasive question._

“Because he’s still wholehearted and I’m still ‘ _emotionally unavailable married to my job_ ’ as he himself said when we broke up. Expectations make me nervous and as much I like… the idea of a relationship it takes too long for me to  open up to people and no one has this much time to spend without any assurances that I will ever come around.”

“That’s okay I think… I mean I never wanted a relationship myself. I always took part in them because my partner wanted and I felt like… denying would sound like I didn’t care enough.” He sighs. _Well he started this conversation, might as well finish, right?_ “I don’t see the appeal really, I hate the expectations and the guilt trips and the unnecessary drama that only ever started _after_ giving anything a name and I… I don’t know. Forget it, this is a super unappropriated topic anyway. I shouldn’t have asked sorry.”

“I don’t mind. I could have ignored you.” Taekwoon says, that airy voice that speaks like he knows what he’s talking about. That… neighbor feeling again. “I’m not here to tell you how to feel your feelings. You do what’s good for you there’s nothing deep behind it.”

“Thanks I… appreciate that.” Taekwoon touches his hair again and Hongbin flinches inwards again. “Please, don’t do that...”

“Sorry.” He chuckles again, Hongbin smiles because he’s nervous. He’s always nervous, all the time. “You don’t really like to be touched do you?”

“I’m… it’s not exactly that. I guess I just don’t like P.D.A all that much either.” He scratches his arm again, the image of Mr.Kim (his philosophy teacher) flashing through his mind again. He used to scratch his arm a lot in highschool.  

“There’s only you and me here.” Taekwoon scoffs lightly.

Yeah that’s… There’s only… them.

On this floor…

_Yeah that’s a thing..._

“You look even more nervous now. Are you okay?”

“Yeah… Maybe I should go.”

Taekwoon touches his wrist, the hold too light to be considered invasive. The contrast between this and him throwing around pliers and ripping packages of sugar with his teeth will always be a shock. “You came on your own… What are you afraid off?”

He doesn’t know either. Proximity?

People finding out he’s a little time bomb? Being even more under the spotlight all that time than what he already is? Being the one on the receiving end of the judgemental stares for a change. “I’m not afraid. I’m just anxious.”

“Because of me?”

“Because of me.”

“What?”

“Let go of me please.” Taekwoon does and he walks away immediately. Maybe he could talk about it some other night but not this one, his brain is buzzing with the idea of privacy, the tempting prospect of _not being caught_.

That’s why he avoids conversations like this one…

Taekwoon messes a little with his inner circuits and he deals poorly with denial.

But it’s being so long since he last took real interest in another person on any level it’s hard to… deal with it.

Knowing he has set rules for this.

Not on his work space.

Never on his work space.

His work space and his private life cannot touch.

He doesn’t _see_ anyone from work outside here, he doesn’t visit and he doesn’t call.

His work space must be free from any potential fuck ups… He wouldn’t bare to ruin this out of a single morbid curiosity over things he can get anywhere.

But _Taekwoon_ … He’s here now but he won’t be here forever…

He came to work but he doesn’t even register on their datalog.

He is… _temporary_ and if he fucks up with Taekwoon in the end… Would it really matter? If he isn’t going to stay with them, do any rules apply at all?

He is trying to convince himself they do.

But he is failing.

Miserably.

His neck feels hot again… He needs a bath, and this time, he will take this fucking band-aid off.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last double update I'll do for a while


	9. Chapter 9

“Don't tell him I told you but Hongbin admitted he finds Taekwoon hot.” Sanghyuk says as he spins his cup over the table, hair still slightly damp from the shower.

Jaehwan makes a choking sound into his cup of iced tea, followed by a not so smooth coughing fit. “Did you just say Hongbin described another fellow human as _hot?!_ ”

“ _Jaehwan! Shhh!_ ” Sanghyuk ushers as some passersby stares at Jaehwan in sympathy as he coughs violently into his closed fist. “No one can know about that.”

“Are you sure we're talking about the same person? I mean–” a pause to clear his throat or at least make an attempt at it. “The guy is an ice block… If ice blocks could sass other creatures.”

“I _know_ right? I always thought he was… I don't know incapable of finding anything with opposing fingers attractive but guess I was wrong this whole time.” Sanghyuk swirls his coffee, watching those pesky little undissolved grains spin at the bottom of the cup. “I mean what could any mortal do to pick up Hongbin's interest?”

“I would’ve said he must be pretty slick but he walks with Wonshik. He laughs at his stupid old man jokes too… He's lame as fuck.”

“Do you think Hongbin likes the nerdy ones?”

“Wonshik was always here and Hongbin's definitely not swooning after _him_.” Sanghyuk hums, seemingly deep in thought. This is the most interesting thing to happen around here since one of the nurses went through labor in the middle of their last resurfacing process. “I mean I get he’s kinda hot, and maybe a little mysterious with all that tall dark and handsome vibe around him and stuff… but it's Hongbin we're talking about here, he's _ruthless_.”

“Dude I know I– Oh, Wonshik's coming.”

Jaehwan instantly turns to smile as Wonshik sits down. “Morning Wonshikkie. Weird not seeing Taekwoon with you.”

“Hm? Oh. he's coming, he's just taking a bath.” Wonshik blinks at them lightly, looking up from his plate.

“Let me ask you something, Wonshikkie… Taekwoon… did he by any chance mention Hongbin to you?” Jaehwan asks as inconspicuously as possible. He doesn't want to sound eager.

But he's eager.

He really is.

“Hongbin? No, why?” Wonshik takes a sip from that toxic orange flavoured juice and Jaehwan tries not to gag thinking about the taste of that shit by continuing the subject.

“Oh, nothing. I saw them talking a few times is all. You must know Hongbin's not the friendliest person around.” Jaehwan says, staring blindly at the mug of coffee at Wonshik's other hand wondering why a single man needs so many beverages at once. “That'd be me. I’m friendly as fuck.”

“Yeah. You're certainly the most modest too.” Wonshik says with a small smirk.

Taekwoon walks in not a second later, in a white shirt and ripped jeans, looking like he's going to casual Friday, not to work. Wonshik carefully pushes the coffee to the side, to the chair beside him and that's where Taekwoon sit, mumbling a quiet _thanks_ around the brim of the mug.

Wonshik pets his thighs amiably without any other words. “Morning Taekwoonie.” Jaehwan smiles.

“Morning Jaehwan-ah.” Jaehwan would coo at his tone but Hakyeon soon joins them too.

“Morning kids. Slept well?”

“Hakyeon! Are those papers under control now?” Jaehwan is the only one on this table capable of maintaining seven conversations at once.

Or actually, it's possible Hakyeon can do that do and just doesn't want to. “No. But if I stayed there any longer I'd die. I was starting to forget this beautiful face of yours Jaehwannie.” Hakyeon all but winks and Jaehwan pretends to gasp.

“Oh my so smooth _oh_.”

“What about you? Committing any crimes lately?” This time the question is directed to Taekwoon and the man simply spares him a glance as he takes another sip of his mug.

“You get coffee for him?” Jaehwan asks immediately, but this time to Wonshik who had been sipping his toxic orange juice in slightly confused silence. “That's sweet.”

“He asked.” Wonshik's answer is shy and slightly awkward as usual.

“Even so.” Jaehwan's decisiveness causes Wonshik to shift a little on his chair, but mercifully Hakyeon doesn't let him squirm for long for he continues speaking and thank _God_ for that. “The pod is ready to go out today?”

“Yes… I'll head to the engineering quarters after this.”

“Sanghyuk I'll need you there.” Hakyeon sips his coffee, black _as his heart_ and bitter _also as his heart_ according to Hakyeon himself.

“Hongbin's my superior I need him to sign the papers.”

Hakyeon nods because yes, obviously Hongbin has to be there. “Now that you mention him, where _is_ he?”

“I left him on the lab yesterday, he looked pretty tired. Must be sleeping.” Sanghyuk has seen it already, from time to time, the way Hongbin seems to drift for a little as he is too tired… Long moments staring into nothing with his fingers resting over the keyboard without really pressing, dark circles pushing his eyes back into his skull.

His train of thought is broken by Taekwoon speaking, imagine that. “Is he okay? He seemed anxious yesterday.”

“I… How do you know?”

“He dropped by the machinery room to talk for a bit.” Jaehwan chokes on his iced tea again, Taekwoon flinches a little as Jaehwan coughs.

“ _Talk?_ ” Jaehwan repeats. “No, wait… Hongbin _went to you to talk?_ Is that it?”

“Yeah… Is something wrong?”

“Not at all dear, Jaehwan is being dramatic.” Hakyeon comments softly.

“No I'm _not_. Hongbin doesn't-” Hakyeon kicks him under the table and smiles, sipping his coffee. Whatever it is that Jaehwan had to say he won't anymore. He's busy whining now.

“I’ll go check on him.” Sanghyuk says suddenly. “Make sure he goes to the engineering quarters in time.”

Taekwoon stays quiet as he goes. _Is something the matter?_

_Is everyone alright?_

_Jaehwan doesn't look alright…_

 

~×~

 

He didn't expect to be woken by Sanghyuk banging on his door like death itself.

He could have called.

With bleary eyes and no shoes he stumbles his way to the door to mumbles a sleepy _the fuck_ that sounds marginally like a question as he squints at the hallway lights. “ _Dude you went to visit Taekwoon last night?_ ”

Hongbin immediately crawls back to bed and Sanghyuk enters the room _uninvited_. “Who told you that…” he says from into his pillow, it sounds throaty and muffled but Sanghyuk seems to understand.

“ _Taekwoon_ during _breakfast._ ” Sanghyuk looks like the husband who was cheated on. Hongbin tries to convey without words that he's trespassing, uninvited, that he should leave and this is all none of his business with his eyes that doesn't seem to stay open on their own.

“And why were you talking about that?”

“We were talking about you.”

“That's fucked up…” He's not ready to sass first thing in the morning. He’s not even up for normal speech.

“You said you weren't bros.”

“We're not.” He finally sits back up, forcing himself to face Sanghyuk or he'd fall asleep again.

“Then why the hell were you in the machinery room with him?”

“Because he's aesthetically pleasing and I can do whatever the fuck I want.” Hongbin grumbles, reaching for a hoodie in the wardrobe and pressing Sanghyuk to the side for it.

This room can barely fit Hongbin alone. Now he and Sanghyuk the giant is quite a feat.

“Woah dude… You like him for real?”

Hongbin ushers a tired sigh as he puts the hoodie on. “Define _like_.”

“Would kiss him?”

“Yes.”

“On the mouth?”

“I'm not five Sanghyuk.” He looks over his shoulder. “Are you going to ask if I would hold his hand too?”

“I mean, what can I say you never gave signs of liking people. I mean you receive letters from the interns all the time and I never saw you read one.”

“I don't entertain romantic interests from underaged kids. It's illegal.” He is trying to put his hair in place with his fingers but it's hard, his fringe just won't stay put.

“I'm talking about your overall persona. And many of them aren't.” Sanghyuk justifies.

“Mm.” He makes something out of his hair and walks off, unfortunately with Sanghyuk after him.

“Don’t ignore me, Hongbin.” But he will, they both know that. “Oh and... Hakyeon asked you to go to the engineering quarters and check on Taekwoon's work on the leakage.”

“Not before my tea.”

And granted, they only ever step inside the engineering quarters after getting Hongbin's tea, his coat, and his reading glasses. Carrying the paper and a pen.

Today Hakyeon is there too, he greets Hongbin with a cheeky. “Well, hello sleeping beauty.”

And Hongbin's answer is a grunted. “Hi.” The sound of the alarms of the lower hatch being opened made Hongbin a little more irritable than he already was.

Today it's Taekwoon kneeling in front of the leakage and supervisor Han cannot be seen anywhere. Maybe Taekwoon was right and she volunteered. “Haebinnie, be careful and keep your eyes in the battery status.” He instructs her and she hums,concentrated but listening.

“They seem to be working fine.”

“That's good.” As he speaks his hands clip and twist wires.

“How is the oil?”

“The levels are low but you have some time, don't rush.”

He and Sanghyuk take a sit by the corner as usual, Hongbin sipping his tea and looking down at his papers and Sanghyuk staring at him with expectant eyes.

Expecting what Hongbin can't tell. “I can't feel anything on this side anymore, there's no water visibly coming in.” He looks up at the monitor, to check her welding job. It's a little irregular by seems firm. “Don't overdo the job, it's a temporary thing either way.”

“Got it. Is this okay?”

“Seems fine. Come back.” Taekwoon pushes himself up. “Be careful when sticking that landing.”

“Okay~”

She seems happy, proud of her own job maybe.

The theory is confirmed when she pushes the door to the lower hatch open again running to Taekwoon like the daughter after the dance presentation at school. Hongbin can't see that part, he's crouching down, picking up samples.

He gives Sanghyuk the flasks and pushes himself up. To say something but she speaks over him. “Taekwoon-oppa! I did it!”

Taekwoon turns to her with a small smile, drying his hands in a stained cloth he pushes into his pockets to pet her hair in a similar fashion he did with Hongbin. “Well done kid.”

She smiles brightly and claps a few times. Sanghyuk stares at Hongbin's face as if expecting some sort of reaction but there’s only Hongbin sipping his tea. “We're waiting for results but I think it'll be okay.”

“Oppa?” Surprisingly is Hakyeon who asks anything. Harbin seems weirdly self-conscious all of a sudden maybe even alarmed, like she was caught doing something bad.

“A-ah I’m sorry, Captain.” She bows politely. “Head-engineer Jung, that's what I meant to say...”

Hakyeon hums softly. “It's fine supervisor Han, I don't really mind. I'm more surprised Taekwoon managed to make friends with you guys seeing how strict he is about work.” Taekwoon scoffs at the passive aggressive jab. He knows Hakyeon is saying that on purpose.

“He's… uh… He's quite nice with our team, sir.” She says, looking for other members of said team that can attest she's telling the truth. “He's been helping a lot.”

 _Considering he's the only one I ever see working_. Hongbin thinks that but he says nothing, waiting for the samples in the flasks to change colors. “What about your aval Hongbin?”

“There’s still some infiltration coming in but there's no oil coming out so in my perspective... it's safe to go.” He pushes up his feet, scribbling on the authorization papers he brought with him.

“Water? But I did the welding, you all saw it.” Haebin seems a little nervous about it, a feeling of failure she’s trying to avoid, he can't tell and honestly he doesn’t care.

He has no answer to it either. “It's fine Haebin, we'll work this out from this side.” Taekwoon tells her, as if he already expected something along those lines to happen, she seems… disappointed somehow.

“Are you sure there's water?”

Hongbin scoffs openly. “Well, I do my job right.” It's all he says, but she seems a little taken aback by it. Hakyeon gives him a look but he doesn't care.

She can stay quiet the next time she thinks about insulting _him._ He knows exactly what he's doing, if she doesn't… well then she should learn to be aware of her on failures instead of trying to pass them to him.

He's not here to make anything easier. “This is Dr.Lee Hongbin. I authorize departure.” He says to the interphone, he's definitely not Taekwoon to soften things up because she's young. “Now if you'll excuse me.” He speaks evenly, sipping his tea again and walking down the hallway as Sanghyuk threads after him quietly.

He has nothing left to say.

 

~×~

 

“Are you jealous?” Sanghyuk predictably asks during some point of the day, when they finally get to be alone after all the interns leave to their quarters. “You know, of Taekwoon.”

“Are you going to romanticize everything now?” Hongbin doesn’t look up from the keyboard. “She fucked up, now that's her problem, but saying it was on me? Asking if _I_ haven't messed up?” He scoffs again. “Screw her, at least I do my goddamn job right.”

“Dude, chill. She was just asking.”

“And I just answered.” He clicks his tongue. “But do the worry, next time I will simply ignore her. Just so I don't hurt her precious feelings.”

“What bit you today?”

“What bit me today is that y'all treat me like I'm a fucking _marble statue._ She fucked up, and I won’t ever be nice with incompetent people. Taekwoon has _nothing_ to do with it. But _oh_ you have to make a giant scene out of it _go to my fucking room as if I committed some crime_ and make as if every fucking shit that I do is because I'm _oh-so-goddamn-infatuated I can't even set my own priorities straight and it's pissing me off._ ” He spins on his chair to face Sanghyuk and scowl like he had been meaning to since this whole bullshit started. “ _That's_ what fucking bit me and I regret ever telling you anything because since I said that you’ve been giving me _hell_. To y’all I'm either an ice block or fucking smitten enough to lose sight of my objective here and you know what? _Screw you too._ ”

Sanghyuk sighs, pressing at his temples. “Look, I’ll leave this conversation to the future. It’s late and it’s not like we can work so I’m going to bed.”

“You can do whatever Sanghyuk, I’m not your mom.”

“Fine, fine… Aish.”

Sanghyuk walks out with a troubled frown on his face Hongbin does not pay attention to for he is looking at the ceiling and thinking, rather bitterly, that he shouldn’t have gotten out of bed today.

Thinking of how now they’ll have to wait before he has any chance of doing something about Percival and that gene and being _stuck_ here, idle and useless, dealing with people questioning his judgement, questioning his ability of executing his function properly.

How much time passes? The sharp red numbers of the digital clock on the wall change mutely so he can’t tell… Silence is a little deafening when it settles.

But there’s a knock on the door. “Hongbin.”  

“What now?” He turns to face Taekwoon wearily, ready to properly fight whoever, nervous as he is... because _oooh but why are you so mean to that fragile little sunshine are you jealous?_ Fuck all this noise.

He could have been meaner, he _should_ have been meaner so people would remember why he’s called bitter and why he is avoided by everyone.

“Are you okay?” Taekwoon pushes the door open to lean against the doorframe, one hand stuffed inside his pocket, toying with something metallic for he hears jiggling, the other still on the doorknob. “You have some angry dimples happening.”

“The fuck is an _angry dimple?_ ”

“This.” Taekwoon pokes the side of his face and Hongbin flinches away again, Taekwoon scoffs a little bemused laugh.

“ _Stop that_.” Hongbin warns just once. “What do you want?”

“You look tired.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Are you having any proper sleep?” Hongbin looks at him and sighs, he has no patience, no patience for any attempts at friendship.

Especially because it’s not friendship he has in mind when he thinks about Taekwoon, and his eyes stray to how he unconsciously chews at his bottom lip as he waits for an answer. “Are you having difficulties grasping the concept of my question? Do you need me to explain it to you? Because I can do that.” He says, irritated, not missing the way Taekwoon's lips tilt upwards like he thinks he's funny with his snappy remarks.

Something cracks, and for once it's not Hongbin's patience.

The ground shakes.

The alarms start ringing.

 

_Warning: water infiltration, secondary filter malfunctioning._

 

“What's that alarm?” Hongbin pushes himself up to his feet as Taekwoon taps hurriedly on the portable he carries on his pocket. “Isn't that _smoke?_ ”

 

_Isolation protocol activated. Please all present staff, evacuate the floor._

 

As an absolute fool, Taekwoon runs _towards_ the smoke. Hongbin is dumbfounded for only a second for in the next he is chasing right after him. _Of course he would do something like that_. “ _Taekwoon_ _stop!_ ”

Again, the navigator repeats.

 

_Isolation protocol activated. All personnel must evacuate the premises. This floor will be locked down._

 

The smoke is thick when they get to the machinery room, and Taekwoon takes one second to access the damage and then another to acknowledge Hongbin pulling at his arm. “ _What the fuck Taekwoon, are you crazy?! We have to–_ ”

“ _Leave it's not safe here_.” He pants, out of nervousness more than anything else immediately rushing to a panel near the main monitor on one corner of the room.

“ _What? No!_ ”

“ _Hongb–_ ”

The doors close way too fast, those heavy fireproof doors covered in steel.

 

_Containment door, locked down._

 

Taekwoon curses under his breath. Hongbin suddenly feels like a nuisance, like he's _in the way_ and the alarm starts blaring again. “I– How can I help?” The side panel the door explodes in blue sparks and he pulls Taekwoon away before the sparks hit him in eye. “You better tell me _now_.” Taekwoon looks exasperated when he looks at him, for only a split second, it's hard to see through the smoke, even with no visible fire.

“You see that lever right there? The big one with the blue handle?” Taekwoon yells over the sound of the alarms echoing into the locked room.

“I do.”

“I'll manually engage the sprinklers back and cut off power to this whole floor. Only the life support will stay running.” Taekwoon starts, squinting through the smoke. “When I say go, punch the code in the panel and pull that lever all the way down. Do you understand? I'll need you to be fast if you hold the lever for too long you'll get electrocuted do you understand?”

_“What's the code?”_

_“9010.”_

Hongbin immediately bolts to the other side of the room, his bones shaking with nervousness, the smell of smoke burning up his nostrils and he wants to cough but an unknown obstination forces him to stay focused on the task at hand. _Too much smoke._

Something else cracks on the other side of the room, Hongbin can only wonder if Taekwoon's okay. Hope this doesn't get him.

 

_Access denied. Please, try again or contact further support._

 

His eyes sting, it's too hard to see through the smoke, on the wall a panel explodes in flames, blue flames. _Cooper_ , his brain helpfully supplies. Hongbin steps back… Toxic.

_That's toxic they have five minutes at best._

 

_Manual reboot recalibrated. Please input security code._

 

 

“ _Now_.” Taekwoon yells from across the room and Hongbin's fingers shake when he punches in the code and runs to the lever to pull all the way down.

 

_Default settings restored._

_Sprinkler system activated._

 

The water hits him and a second later Taekwoon is dragging him away from the lever and the cascade of electrical sparkles that shower from the wall as soon as the water touches the panel. “Holy _fuck..._ ” They stumble to the other side of the room, hitting some shelves and all lights go off.

_Well they’re even now..._

The loud screech of the ventilation system draining away the smoke kicks in not a second later.

_Good… that's… that's really good._

Taekwoon's hands are on his waist.

There's water falling from the ceiling.

He can't see.

The red lights go off.

Taekwoon's breath fans across his cheek.

_It happened too fast._

Panic settles in again. “Are you okay?!” He breathes out, gathering Taekwoon's lowered face between his wildly shaking fingers. “Are you injured? Talk to me.”

“Your cheek's bleeding…”  Taekwoon pants softly and Hongbin feels his legs turning into jelly almost immediately. _Oh thank God he's okay..._

He can't feel his cheek...but Taekwoon seems to be okay, that's something.

Well fuck.

_Well fuck._

“ _Holy fuck I thought_ –” Taekwoon kisses his cheek and the words seem to lost themselves a little into the lump on his throat, between his lungs and the shiver up his spine.

_The water is cold, but Taekwoon is warm..._

“Shit don't scare me like that…” Taekwoon pleads softly, breath over his jaw, Hongbin swallows on nothing. “Holy shit, I couldn't concentrate with you–”

He kissed him.

He kissed him that's it.

That very gentle, very little coaxing was all that he needed to do stupid shit.  For his will to snap in half. Fingers still shaking, still holding Taekwoon's face and still breathless.

He expected tenseness but there is none, he expected some nervous flinch but there is none either. Taekwoon adapts like water, fluid and easily, lips warm, shaky but soft and tasting of candy and smoke. “Fuck…” He breathes out guiltily, and Taekwoon hums against his lips, he must be confused, the hands he had on him turned softer, the hold somewhat gentler. Hongbin feels the urge to make some sort of noise pressing against his brain. “Fuck, I'm so sorry… I don't– Please don't get me wrong you–”

Taekwoon seems to have enough of his struggle, fingers threading into wet his hair to bring him closer again. If redemption was a gesture and not a word, it would be this one. The only thing Hongbin needed to melt the knot on the base of his spine, get his heart rate stable. “No, Taekwoon–” it's so hard to concentrate with Taekwoon's hands sliding from his waist to the small of his back. “It's Important I don't… I don't want a relationship I just–”

Taekwoon gives him a small allowance to elaborate further at least. Their noses bump. _This is too close._ “Don't get any… hopes up I'm not–” Saying like this might be rude but he should get that out of the way now while there's nothing here yet. “I don't really want anything serious… right now.”

“Okay.” Taekwoon blinks as if confused as to why he would feel the need to point that out. They had spoken about it in the past.

“ _Okay?_ ”

“Yeah, okay.” Awkwardness starts settling in pretty quick after that, Hongbin shifts in place and Taekwoon's eyes fall to another corner of the room body subtly retreating, watching the card boxes get soggy under the insistent spray of water.

“Then…” Hongbin manages, in the least mortified voice the can muster at the moment.

“You want to... kiss some more?” Taekwoon asks rather shyly and Hongbin utters an immediate sigh of relief.

“Oh god, yes please.” It's so easier to simply latch to Taekwoon's lips again, arms around his neck to pull him down and against him again, clutching at his soaked clothes because he is an eager, nervous creature. The memory of how angry he felt at Sanghyuk for treating him like he had no human feeling inside him burns anew as he thinks of this morning.

Sanghyuk making a gigantic fuss simply because he _spoke_ to Taekwoon.

He would pop a vessel if he knew about _this._ And talking about blood, he's starting to feel his cheek.

Well he broke some rules here didn’t he? But it seems less and less important and Taekwoon pushes him over the wet table and settles between legs like they had done this many times in the past. It would be unsettling if it wasn’t so very riveting. “How much time till this doors open?” He asks a little breathlessly as Taekwoon trails lightly from his mouth to his jaw, down his neck, dragging teeth lazily.

“Twenty five minutes I guess, now the sprinklers are on.” _Shit that’s not much…_ “What do you have in mind?”

“Nothing... You’re wearing white and your shirt is wet so I’m thoroughly distracted.” He chuckles lightly as a soft spoken excuse that carries some truth, fingers bumping across Taekwoon’s scar as he touches the fine little hairs at his nape.

Taekwoon seems a little self conscious at that, a nervous smile crossing his lips, ducking his head in what Hongbin would call embarrassment for lack of any better words. “I guess…” _Cute_.

“Hey look at me...” It takes some coaxing but he eventually has Taekwoon’s soft cheeks between his palms, his lips looking slightly pouty as usual. _It makes his guts churn a little_.

From this close he can see the multiple little tiny spots of very light freckles around Taekwoon’s cheeks, natural looking and almost invisible. Their noses bump again and Hongbin’s breath hitches just a little. “What?” Taekwoon asks him, another tiny nervous smile slightly curling the corner of his mouth upwards.  

“I’m trying to understand why everyone thinks you’re scary.” Hongbin sounds serious, he wishes he could take a picture right now… In one of those old digital cameras... He likes to feel the weight of those on his hands… it’s a similar feeling from holding Taekwoon’s stare, his cat-like, sharp eyes. They feel heavy… They make his skin tingle.

_But it could be the cold water too._

“I’m gonna kiss you for the twenty five minutes, is that okay?”

“As long as you stop talking nonsense…”

This is manageable.

Taekwoon’s hand is firm like he is, pulling him a little closer, between his parted legs like this is natural.

In a sense, it feels like it.

How there’s no trace of that shyness when they kiss, when Taekwoon holds his waist like he is completely sure of what he’s doing… As if Hongbin is another one of his circuits and he knows what to do, what to press, what to take...

Hongbin gasps mutely at the sudden feeling of fingers digging into his sides.

The sound of the water drowns everything...

The panels blink red…

Like his boiling blood and his beating heart.

Too human… Thankfully, too human.

 


	10. Chapter 10

He keeps stealing glances at Taekwoon talking to Hakyeon from across the room. Explaining why things caught fire as Hongbin has his cheek disinfected with cotton and iodine. “It won't scare, thankfully.” Jaehwan murmurs as he checks the wound, already holding a band-aid between his fingers. This one has… chickens? Chickens printed in it?

The entire medical department came down from the top floor, Jaehwan's even wearing his pajamas already but he's here… he's wearing sandals too but Hongbin is trying not to look at them. “You need a warm bath and dry clothes or you'll get sick.”

As if on cue Hongbin pulls the towel closer around himself. “Yeah, I will…”

“I know it must’ve been stressful but we're fine now. Don't worry.”

“Sure, no problem…”

“Are you paying attention, Kong?”

“Uhum.”

“Hm… Time to go to bed then. It's pretty fucking late and I have to see if Taekwoon's okay.” Medical kit in hand Jaehwan pushes himself up, walking towards the other two and rounding the engineering team that was also dragged out of bed to check if everything is truly under control.

It seems like it is but the girl, supervisor Han, she seems agitated… Not that that's Hongbin business but he couldn't help but notice her head seems to be in the clouds this whole time. Bumping into people and dropping objects way too frequently be considered occasional, her hair in a messy bun atop her head. She must've been sleeping too.

“Hey Lee.” Hongbin can't recognize this voice but he looks up either way. “I've heard you helped controlling the fire.”

“I pulled a lever.” He is not really trying I make it sound cool. Everything happened too fast and he's not sure if he is to be praised for tapping four numbers and pulling a lever on the wall.

“Even so, that's pretty brave of you.” He says, hands into his pockets.

The smile, the stance, the look… “Are you trying to flirt with me?” He squints his eyes slightly, and the man seems to deflate a little at that.

“N-No man I'm just–”

“Good because I'd have to file you for harassment during work hours and that'd be awful wouldn't it?” The man brings his hands up awkwardly, shoulders hunched over suddenly.

“No I really– It was just an aimless compliment… Really.”

“Sure... Thanks.” Hongbin leans back on his chair, eyes stern and the man quickly dismisses himself with a soft spoken excuse.

Hongbin's eyes turn to Taekwoon, gently trying to dismiss medical attention (which was nearly impossible considering it was Jaehwan he was trying to dismiss) one last time before leaving the towel behind and silently making his way upstairs.

Take a bath for he is _freezing_.

And then sleep.

His shoulders feel tense, the knot inside his guts is still there, clenching… Making him wonder what is he supposed to do now he already fucked up.

Of course there is not much regret taking place, only the doubt of questioning where should he go from there… Should he go talk to Taekwoon again? Should he wait for him to come around? Should he treat this as an exceptional case and not talk about it again? After all there was a lot of adrenaline involved (or that was the excuse he would give if he was ever questioned about it, he's not really up for discussions about his sexual deviations) and as much as Taekwoon didn't seem to deny him his face didn't give enough for him to know what was expected of him next.

The bathroom is empty at such hours, one of the main reasons Hongbin baths at night, if he was to be completely honest. He prefers to have at least some degree of privacy.

The stalls are all timed, three minutes for a bath, which is reasonable. That avoids that people like Hongbin start thinking about life and existence and _work_ in the shower and waste all their water supply.

He is getting dressed again when Taekwoon steps inside, a little drier now but slightly covered in some… Ash? Ash stains? Regardless they hold eye contact for a few seconds until Taekwoon finally says. “Managed to pacify Jaehwan by saying I would take a bath and go to bed.”

“I'm surprised you're actually doing it.” He goes back to folding his soaked clothes, that tension on his shoulders becomes a little worse and Taekwoon starts undressing. If he showers in the morning he must be used to having people around.

“I'm tired. I think for once he's not just exaggerating... It's quieter here at night.”

“One of the reasons I prefer to bath at night.” Hongbin tells him without taking his eyes off the clothes he's folding.

“How's your cheek?”

“It's okay.”

“You look tense.”

Well yes, yes he is indeed very tense. But he won't say it out loud because he's not really used to showing weakness. “Hey, can I kiss you again?”  _Well what else can he say, right?_

“You mean now?”

“I mean all the time cause you're hot and I'm really into you in a very physical, very unromantic, very superficial way because I'm a jerk like that.” To his surprise Taekwoon chuckles softly, a little surprised at his boldness but since they aren't talking about feelings Hongbin is all good. “I'm serious.”

“I'm sure you are...” Taekwoon smiles that tiny little smile of his. “I don't know exactly what to say… You're proposing a casual thing right?”

“Don't try to give it a name, just say yes and kiss me.” Hongbin says, turning to face Taekwoon properly and lean back against the edge of the sink.

Taekwoon laughs again, picking him up like one of those boxes he was piling the other day and putting him sitting on the sink before kissing him (as requested), the way teenagers do... making out in the bathroom during prom like they might die the second the step out of the badly lighten gimnasium back to their rented, lent cars.

It's a young feeling…

Hongbin is not used to feeling _young_ all that much anymore. “Wait, we're in public…” His will to push Taekwoon away is almost non-existent as it is (that was his idea after all), and he ends up with hands splayed over his bare chest thinking of how warm he feels and not about how his words are meaningless if he's not putting any sort of resistance.

“Isn't that all the fun?” Taekwoon drags his teeth down at his bottom lip and Hongbin feels himself shiver. _Fuck that's hot…_

“Yeah… It kind of is.” Their noses bump again, this is becoming a habit.

_Is that a problem?_

_No, it isn't._

“I didn't take you as the kind to do this sort of thing…” a muted gasp leaving his lips as Taekwoon's hands slide invasively up his spine. Cold hands… very cold, the kind of leave an afterfeeling of chills and rouse a sequence of goosebumps.

They shouldn't talk, just kiss, but Hongbin is anxious and too much silence makes him prone to sass.

Especially if he's already feeling slightly ashamed of how easy it was for them to end up like this when he has said multiple times even that his private life and his work space shouldn't ever coexist. “Look who's talking…” Taekwoon mouths against his lips, partially muffled by kissing sounds because Hongbin talks too much but it's not like he wants to instill any sort of conversation either.

There's steps down the hall, steps and voices. _Too close._

They both still, part immediately… So fluidly it looks like they had discussed it beforehand.

Taekwoon is turning to get a towel and Hongbin is grabbing his damp clothes and walking to the door so fast they don't even say goodbye.

_Holy shit are they going to keep this a secret? Are they?_

_This? And what in Christ's name is **this**_ _exactly?_

“Hey Hongbin.” Says one of the voices pushing the bathroom door open as Hongbin steps out, clutching at his clothes hoping his hair is not too much of a mess.

“Hey...” Hongbin is out the door and running up stairs in a flash, wanting to work that anxious energy somehow. He wants to scream.

That teen energy is making his hands shake, nervous, nervous, _nervous oh God what is he even doing_?

It's an excited kind of guilt, one Hongbin hasn't experienced since college… Like hiding your too hot but also slightly shitty boyfriend from your christian mom.

Except Taekwoon is neither shitty nor his boyfriend but… it feels kinda good… doing something bad and slightly rowdy for _once_.

Well not once… he was always a sucker for unauthorized  closure and unethical behavior but people are not meant to _know that._ _Why tell Taekwoon?_ They have too much in common of course, and Taekwoon understands work is more important than… mundane affairs and stuff but even so.

Why tell him?

Probably because Taekwoon seems to be made of secrets…

Just this one small transgression wouldn't damn them both.

He slams the door of his room closed, the beeping indicating it locked up sounds too loud inside his ringing skull. “Shit…”

Young excitement…

That's nice…

That's really nice.

He can name that tight feeling in the pitch of his stomach, and he debates, for a brief second if he is willing to do something about it… Feel the slight stiffness between his legs and know he could do something about it…

Slide his shaky fingers past the loose band of his pajama pants and just leave them there, aware that Taekwoon is messing with the delinquent inside him. Something he never indulged inside his work space.

This place was supposed to be safe of his moral deviations. But regardless he's here… with a boner of sorts thinking about the heat creeping up his spine.

Making him sweat just the slightest bit, not sure if it's because he ran all the way here, or because Taekwoon has him a little out of control.

_Shit either way._

“What to do…?” He mumbles at the plastic glow in the dark stars he glued to the ceiling many years ago on his first incursion for they distracted him of the sound of wailing metal and the thought of endless amounts or salty water that could kill them all.

He wonders if Taekwoon is the same, if he's messed up jerking off in the shower. It's as if they are doing something wrong when it isn't… There's no laws against it.

A knock on the door has him jumping out of his own guilty stupor thinking about his own inner monsters and the urge he suddenly feels at breaking moral codes of conduct with Taekwoon because _“the government facilities are meant for serious researched and not entertainment and recreation_.”

Yeah… recreation alright.

But he pushes up to his feet to open the door in the most natural way possible. “Ye–”

Taekwoon is pulling him in to a kiss, _again._

Kicking the door close and pressing Hongbin to the only open wall his small _individual cubicle space he calls a room only because it has a bed_ has. Hongbin catches fire instantaneously, fingers threading into Taekwoon's soaked hair and thanking all entities for bringing him here right as he needed a _helping hand_ so to speak.

_Jesus he's so crass…_

“Sorry… did I push my boundaries?” Taekwoon asks rather shyly between kisses considering how bold he is with those lips when he's not using them for talking. _Bless him._

“God bless you for reading my mind, Jung Taekwoon…” Hongbin sighs, breathlessly against his lips, dazed already for he was not expecting this. “You checked my files to know the number of my room like a total creep didn't you?”

“Maybe.”

“Bless you.” Hongbin admits lightly, fingers hooked around the belt loops on Taekwoon's pants, to pull him closer and against him. Taekwoon chuckles and this time Hongbin doesn't try to hold the little amused smile on his face.

“It's been so long since I last did anything like this.” He hums softly, mouthing little kisses down the column of his neck.

Hongbin exhales a shaky breath. “By _like this_ you mean…”

“All this… Everything.”

Hongbin gently pulls them towards the bed until Taekwoon falls sitting on it and he can straddle his thighs and hold his bony shoulders and grind down on him and hear this nice breathy sound Taekwoon makes when he does it. “Opportunities.” Hongbin breathes out, fighting the urge to melt despite the little electric shocks running up his spine every time he grinds down.

He wants to keep that teen vibe going. Taekwoon leaning back on his hands in quiet acceptance. “What do you want out of this Kong?” Taekwoon asks and his voice sounds really sweet, fisting the sheets, he wishes he could encapsulate that moment and keep it on his bedside table.

“I don't know… I don't know what to say...” He doesn't even know what to think, his brain’s a mess, scattered around and filled with white noise and his own deafening heartbeat.

_Holy shit it's been awhile…_

“I think we're going too fast…” He says that but he's beckoning them further into the bed, dragging Hongbin by the hips with him.

“I agree… Then what, hyung?” Taekwoon smells like that cheap soap they use on board and his own smell, he must have ran a little to get here too.

The idea that Taekwoon was running to reach him makes him burn a little… Makes him want to fuck around all the more.

_Hongbin's a taker._

No answer ever comes, Hongbin is spun around and he almost hits his head into the wall and Taekwoon is on him again… Heavy and real and hot and stable… kissing a line from his shoulders up to his ears, biting lightly, and Hongbin squirms, pressing their joined hips together once again and hearing Taekwoon hiss against his ears.

There's a pace change, they don't keep meaningfully staring into each other's eyes because that's not the thing that's going on here, but things seem to slow down just a little. “Promise me if you ever start developing serious feelings for me you'll put an end to this.” Hongbin whispers lightly, as serious as a man like him rolling around in bed with a partial stranger can be.

Taekwoon laughs regardless. “I promise you narcissistic brat.” The smile painting his voice makes his usually pouty tone sound so much brighter. _Cute…_

“Good.” Hongbin hums. “Now undress me, I'm sweating.” He reaches his arms up to Taekwoon as if he was supposed to do something about it.

“Do it yourself.” Taekwoon scoffs and Hongbin makes a face, turning them over so he is now partially sitting on Taekwoon's chest, squirming down a little so he can get closer to his crotch. _That's the whole point really._

“Rude.” He complains as he pulls the sleeping shirt over his head, looking down at Taekwoon sprawled on his tiny bed, hands placed beside his head peacefully. _He's gorgeous, fuck…_ “I think we'll have to be quiet.”

As if to spite him (or maybe kill altogether) Taekwoon takes a deep breath and screams like he just found a bloody corpse or actual Satan. Hongbin didn't even know he could _be_ that loud.

And he almost falls out of the bed as Taekwoon's scream turns into a genuine heartfelt laugh. “ _What the fuck?!_ ”

“The walls are soundproofed...” Taekwoon manages amidst his giggle fit.

“ _Well you could have just_ ** _said_** _that! Jesus fuck I almost had a heart attack…. Holy shit._ ”

“I could but doing this was much funnier.” He stills has that stupid looking smile on his face and Hongbin kind of wants to kick him out but damn it isn't he hot when he smiles like that.

“Are you like, _five_?” He squints his eyes instead and Taekwoon chuckles sweetly at him.

“Don't be mad, I was just joking.”

“You're so lucky to be this hot.” Taekwoon scoffs a shy (and slightly nervous) _thanks?_ Hongbin feels no need to answer. “This cute too.”

“I'm not cute, I'm twenty nine.”

“Whatever you say, _hyung_.”

“I feel like you're mocking me.”

“Oh, am I?” He scoffs, rolls his eyes like the disrespectful brat he actually is. “Who would have–”

Taekwoon kisses him again and he feels pacified, melting against Taekwoon's sweater, it feels soft against his bare chest, and he gently pulls it over, Taekwoon offering some help and arching his back off the bed until Hongbin finally manages to pulls it all the way over his head. “You'll eventually drive me insane you know…” Hongbin complains as Taekwoon pecks his lips many times, soothing, pacifying.

The shitty part is that it works. “Sorry… Couldn't help myself.”

“Jerk.” He may say that but there's no bite in his tone, if anything he sounds slightly whiny. “Are we going to fuck or not?”

“I'm down for it… Just not today. I'm really tired.” Taekwoon says and Hongbin hums, understanding. He's tired too. “But let me make up to you.” He turns them over again and again Hongbin makes a little strangled yelp before hitting the mattress again.

Kissing again.

But not lingering this time, for Taekwoon's and pretty pouty pinkish mouth start down his chest… _oh… okay._

_Alright._

He shivers again and Taekwoon deals with the elastic band of his pants and underwear, his hair tickled the sensitive skin in his navel as much as his breath does and Hongbin has an arm over his eyes because he's not at all ready. And he wants to feel, not think.

And then every inch past Taekwoon's lips is a little more pressure tightening on the base of his spine, on his thighs, around his lungs. This soft little sound leaving him as he tries to accommodate this amount of pressure inside him, Taekwoon hums lightly around him and it sends a bolt of electricity up his spine.

_Oh… oh God…_

_It's a nice pace… a merciful one._

Not seeing what's happening builds up feeling much faster, the feeling of hands in his thighs feel clearer, the rough skin of Taekwoon's palms touching his protruding hip bones and the sounds… The sounds get to him a lot more than they should. They _burn_ …

Hongbin is breathless but he's not loud, he never was, a silent little creature always as it is natural to nervous types like himself. His free hand slides into Taekwoon's messy hair, not pressing nor guiding -Hongbin’s not the kind for neither- only a type of… reflex this types of intimacy ask for… He can't see but Taekwoon hums again.

He feels the strings that hold his limbs together tighten impossibly and he gasp because he always loses track of time at moments like this, gasping because breathing is so hard… The little pull on Taekwoon's hair is all the indication he gives, chewing at his bottom lip because he wants to whimper but his voice would ruin everything inside his head now.

Time seems to slow down when he falls apart with a soft little moan, so very unlikely of him, shivering at the sound of Taekwoon mouth around him. _He is the type to swallow it seems… Hongbin is, too._

For one second his own heartbeat has him deaf and then he is -breathless as utterly spent as he is- pulling Taekwoon back up to kiss him again. “Hongbin, wait, I'm–”

“ _Shhhh_ …” They kiss again, slow this time because things feel slow to him and he wants to share that somehow. “Thanks…” Taekwoon seems oddly shy about it. “You want me to…”

“Not tonight. But thanks…” Hongbin kisses him again then, for a few seconds, appreciating the feeling of Taekwoon's hands into his sides and around his back.

Feeling _young_.

Dealing with the high that blowjobs from semi-strangers bring.

“Let me know when, then.”

“I definitely will.” Taekwoon kisses him one last time before awkwardly pushing himself back up, Hongbin silently watches him go, wishing him a good night on his way out.

He feels slightly dazed…

He hopes to feel dazed again soon.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Playful make out thingie woop


	11. Chapter 11

“Where's Sanghyuk?” Hongbin asks as he takes a seat, mug of tea in hand and a portion of (what he was told to be) dehydrated fruit in the other.

“He went on ahead. Said he had to talk to you.” Jaehwan says as he sips his… whatever this is. He puts mild in iced tea, this doesn't have a name does it? “Did you fight?”

“I don't know.”

“You don't know?”

“Yeah I mean I've been sleeping like three hours a night and there was a the fire and shit… I don't remember.” Hongbin sips his tea and Jaehwan seems to be pacified at the mention of the fire.

Wonshik and Taekwoon as always arrive together and go get in line to grab coffee, as per usual. Hongbin glances at them quietly. “Wonshik looks so different when he's talking to Taekwoonnie, don't you think?”

“Intimacy sucks.” Hongbin says idly, popping a piece of fruit into his mouth. It's so sweet it tastes like candy… but well it's not exactly bad so it's fine. “Look at you and Hakyeon, you keep flirting even if I know he's not your type.”

“And how do you know my type Lee Hongbin?” Jaehwan scoffs, a little judgemental look.

“Because I'm your type.” Hongbin is unapologetic, as always, and Jaehwan crosses his arms, dissatisfied. “I'm haaaandsome.” Hongbin sound mocking and Jaehwan squints his eyes.

“You’re so unpleasant.”

“I know.” He chuckles, sipping more of his tea.

“You seem to be in a good mood. Something happened?”

“Slept well is all.” The lie comes naturally to him. It's not completely a lie of course, but maybe it's his little thing with Taekwoon the other night that gave him a good night of sleep and not just the cosmos rewarding him for his hard work.

“Morning.” Wonshik smiles, sitting by the table gingerly.

“Wonshik, Hongbin’s smiling too much it's creeping me out.” Jaehwan says as Hongbin takes another sip of his tea, and Taekwoon joins them with much smaller, much softer _morning kids_ Hongbin almost misses.

“Why? He looks nice.” Wonshik says, nice as usual. “I mean… I'm not saying that as in– I hope that doesn't sound rude. I'm just saying.” Hongbin scoffs.

“He’s aware that he's pretty don't worry.” Taekwoon says around the brim of his mug, Hongbin smiles again, that smile with dimples that make him look like a nice kid. “See?” He discreetly kicks Taekwoon under the table and Taekwoon almost chokes on his coffee. “ _Ow_.”

“See? This boy is dangerous.” Jaehwan points accusingly.

“I’m Satan, you finally found out.” Hongbin chuckles biting another piece of fruit. “Now I'll have to kill all of you.”

“Is that a joke? You don't make jokes so I’m confused.” Jaehwan asks with an eyebrow raised. Instead of answering Hongbin shrugs says a _have to go bye_ and pushes up to his feet. Jaehwan is confused but it seems like he will be like that forever.

Hongbin doesn't mind either way.

In the lab Sanghyuk walks around without really _doing_ anything. “What are you doing?”

“ _Finally_. Look, about yesterday–” Hongbin cuts him off because he expected something along those lines even if didn't thought it was necessarily something  they had to worry about. So he says exactly that. “It’s okay let us both forget about that.”

“What, really? That easily?”

“Yeah, just stop being a douche or I'll never tell you anything ever again.” Hongbin puts on his lab coat on and sits back down his his chair by the door. He will probably finish this part and then he will _finally_ take some pictures to update the datalog.

He asked for that damned camera and the only thing it was used for up to now was collecting dust and being a paper weight. _Wow, so useful._

“Okay.” Sanghyuk blinks dumbly, somehow he imagined this would be much harder. “So we're cool now?”

“We were always cool. You just wasn't aware of that.” Hongbin starts typing and Sanghyuk goes to do his things having nothing more to say. He's gave up on isolating the genes, now he is only trying I recreate the serum they had used on Percival and try to understand what would have killed him. It's not that easy.

But working is never a nuisance and if they fail it only ever feeds Hongbin's desire to succeed. He is an _extremely determined individual_ as it counts on his file.

It's already so late when Hongbin finally tries to put his bones back in place. “Holy shit I'm getting old.” He mumbles and Sanghyuk wakes from the involuntary nap he had been taking over his own notes.

“I'm awake.”

“Sure you are…” Hongbin hums, checking his portable for a second. His blood test came in and his blood pressure had been too low. Somehow he expected the opposite. “Go to bed. I can lock everything.”

“You sure? I think this counts as a power nap, I'm ready to go.” Sanghyuk may put a brave face but he's rubbing his eyes like a kid taken out of bed to go to school after staying up late playing MMO's all night.

“No, it's fine. I finished the report and now I will start on the diagrams.” Hongbin sighs. “Tomorrow because I'm dead tired.”

“Okay.” Sanghyuk stretches his long limbs and Hongbin us once again reminded of how tall he is. “All-nighter tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Have to leave a note for the interns so they take the frozen specimens out of the freezer…” he presses at his temples again. “For them to set up the voice recorder too.”

“Cool, I'll make a note on the system so they can check tomorrow.”

“Nice. Thanks.”

“Are you staying?”

“For a little while, yes.”

“Don't stay here all night, see you tomorrow man.”

“See ya.” Sanghyuk closes the door and Hongbin runs a hand through his own hair. It’s late… so late, his limbs feel heavy and that sensation he has some times… of cotton stuffed inside his brain? Did it make sense? Well it has returned.

A deep breath, then two… The light and the faint sound of bubbles coming from the tank distract him immensely as usual. What is he to do? He fears they won’t have enough time to perfect a justification to the research.

Last time he already heard he had unobtainable objectives, it was not _doable_ to simply combine genes without tripping on some laws, over the regulations implemented since the last millennia… without kicking the norms of genetical resequencing and the contracts of peace made with another countries.

Effectively he knew as soon as a vaccine against _death_ became a thing, people would start trying to push him around… with money or threats.

And that much was expected.

But now they were running out of time and Hongbin had to continue resequencing DNA because their _only_ living subject died after complications revolving around the fact that mammals with evolved brains shouldn’t enter stasis.

That’s already a thing in a way.

It’s called coma. And he is trying _not_ to prompt brain damage of memory loss.

Another sigh, this is gonna be _horrible_.

He looks up at the panel on the wall and granted, of course Taekwoon is awake right now… The idea of coming to bother him crosses his mind but he is not in the mood for any fooling around tonight.

He just wants to sleep.

But of course Taekwoon is already in the bathroom, bend over the sink with his arm under the running water. His initial urge to just ask if Taekwoon had a tracker installed in him because he’s _fucking everywhere god damn_ melts away pretty quick when he sees Taekwoon groan a little. “What’s going on? Are you hurt?”

“It’s nothing…” he breathes, looking at the door and swallowing as if he was swallowing another complain instead of only saliva. “Someone fucked up my circuits and I got…” He trails off and Hongbin is immediately unsettled.

“Got? Got what?” Hongbin rounds him to take a look at his arm but it doesn’t seem to be bleeding at least.

“ _Don’t freak out._ ”

“I’m gonna freak out right now if you don’t tell me.”

“I was– mildly electrocuted… I can’t really… I mean, my arm is numb.” Taekwoon says finally and Hongbin picks his wrist and turns to him, it’s cold. _Fucking stupid engineer doing stupid shit because he’s stupid._ He makes this little surprised noise for Hongbin just twisted his arm in a weird angle.

He is forced to turn to him properly, arm dripping wet. “Are you dumb?” Hongbin chides. “Of course your arm is numb this water is freezing it slows down circulation… Stupid engineer. Do you feel that?” He presses at a tendon up Taekwoon’s forearm and Taekwoon nods. “What about this?” He does again on another point, closer to his wrist this time.

“Yeah I can feel it.”

“Does it hurt?”

“No… It’s just numb, I told you.” Hongbin hums. “I think it fried the filament in my eye though…” he sighs.

“Let me see.” Hongbin is already being invasive but after all that happened he supposes he is entitled to be a little invasive for the sake of safety. If the dude had his dick into his mouth not 24 hours ago it means it’s cool to touch.

_Didn’t you know? Write_ **_that_ ** _in your book of proper human interaction._

“Hongbin is nanotechnology, I don’t think you’ll be able to see it.” Hongbin has the distinct impression Taekwoon is maybe being condescending toward his capabilities of understanding here.

“Not the filament, your eye.”

“I can see.”

“Hush now, let me see.” With his palms on either side of Taekwoon’s face. Taekwoon looks mildly amused. “I don’t trust your judgement, you already proved your incompetence in this particular area.”

“You could just turn off the lights and I’d tell you if I can see anything or not you know.” Taekwoon chuckles. “Or is this just your way of suggesting you want something from me?”

“Jesus Christ, okay! I’ll turn off the damn lights oh my god.” He steps back silently. This flirting action is getting him a little shaky and that’s not the idea. “I hope your eye falls off… Even if I’m sure you’d look sexy in an eyepatch fucking asshole.” Taekwoon chuckles and Hongbin smiles but only because he turned the lights off and that jerk wouldn’t have the satisfaction of seeing anything.

“You have a very particular way of flirting, Kong.” Hongbin scoffs. “And a very cute smile too… Guess it’s still working, I can see dimples. But I figure I would be able to see them anyway.”

“As you said this morning I know I’m pretty.”

“Are you mad I said that?”

“You’re a fucking jerk Jung Taekwoon.” Taekwoon hums, walking towards him in the dark, it makes him look like a feline of some kind when he does it… Knowing he can see much better than he can does some things to Hongbin’s insides. “But a hot jerk regardless.” He crosses his arms defiantly because he’s not going to back down from this.

“You’re such a brat do you know that?” Taekwoon’s hands rest over his waist again, always so fucking cold, so unlike the rest of him… The rest of him feels like molten lava.

“I guess we all get what we deserve, don’t we?” He chuckles lightly, pulling Taekwoon a little closer so they can kiss. He can see from this close… Taekwoon’s left eye emits a very faint blue light, so weak it’s hard to tell the difference even from this close.

But his breath is warm and his body is right there, hands up his back and making Hongbin shiver just a little. “I won’t ever know what Hakyeon saw in you.”

“The sex was pretty good, let me tell you.”

“That’s so much more than what I wanted to know.” Hongbin makes a face and Taekwoon laughs heartily, picking him up in his arms.

“Sorry, kid.”

“I’m not a kid, I’m twenty-” Taekwoon won’t let him finish this time he kisses him once just so he will stop talking and then he backs off, despite Hongbin little whined protests. “Where are you going?”

“Do something really inappropriate.”

“How inappropriate?”

“Very much.”

“How so?”

“You’ll see…” He presses the button on the panel beside the door. “Manual commands, execute manual lock out.”

The speakers inside the bathroom intone in that overly-mechanical voice:

 

_Yes, engineer Jung… Communal Bathroom doors: locked._

 

Hongbin is baffled, looking at the speakers with his eyes too wide. “That’s abuse of power.”

“I know right? Now come here.” He picks Hongbin up and throws over his shoulder and Hongbin does not pretend like he didn’t do the most embarrassing yelp because that happened and he’s not _okay in being picked up at all Jesus fuck-_

He is dragged into the stall right about the time he is ready to start flipping shit up he's being placed back down only to be kissed again before he has a chance of externalizing his _absolute displeasure at being carried around what the ever living hell Taekwoon._

A second later Taekwoon’s shirt is on the floor, followed by Hongbin’s own and everything else shortly after. “Must I interpret you are not too tired tonight…?” Hongbin asks, breathless already.

Jittery from that teen feeling again, it seems like it’ll always be like that with Taekwoon.

He’ll take a while to adjust to this feeling…

“I’m tired of your sass that’s what I’m tired off.” Taekwoon groans as he presses the button of the shower and the cold water hits Hongbin in the back. He laughs openly at how high pitched Hongbin’s voice turns when he curses, he laughs so much Hongbin feels his urge to punch him rising with equal intensity as the heat on his neck.

That’s why he get’s Taekwoon by the neck and slams him to the wall to _bite_ at the juncture of his neck like a goddamn _vampire_ and hear Taekwoon moan really softly, hiss and dig his fingers into his hips... His hands feel warm when they run up his spine this time but Hongbin shivers nonetheless, he can detect a faint taste of blood on his tongue.

This time when their eyes meet there is no trace of that smile on Taekwoon’s lips and he is even more breathless if that’s at all possible. He is getting lightheaded already… He hopes that when their lips clash this time Taekwoon can feel the blood on his tongue and know he’s flammable…

But he seems to understand, because he smells like gasoline so he must be the fuel Hongbin has been looking for for so long now…

Hongbin grabs a hold of them both into one of hands, it's not easy but his hands are not exactly small either. Taekwoon mewls softly into his mouth… _He’s vocal, that’s good... That’s really good, Hongbin is one to get off on the sounds._ Taekwoon’s other hand comes to join his own between them, and Hongbin thinks of how this is the closest they’ll ever get from holding hands and he wants to laugh.

Instead he drags his teeth down at Taekwoon’s already red lips, resting his forehead against Taekwoon’s own because is Taekwoon that dictates the pace, he is just there to be guided, hide his eyes on the the crook of Taekwoon’s neck and hear him breathe, hear his breathy, beautiful voice, echo softly into the bathroom walls every now and then… He likes how he sounds, he likes a lot... Trying so hard not to thrust into their joined hands because he wants this to last just a few more seconds.

His own breath hitches and he wants to say he’s close but instead he squeezes Taekwooon’s arm and Taekwoon’s free hand goes into his hair as a sign that he, too, won’t last much longer.

He gasps but whatever sound that leaves his lips pales in comparison when a few seconds latter Taekwoon is whispering the sweetest little moan. Sounds like secrets… Like everything about him.

Passionate but so very secretive.

Hongbin watches him closely as he falls apart in the dark, the way he closes his eyes and bites down at his own lips and how his fingers tighten a little on his hair.

He has a good memory… He will remember this.

But as a scientist he can’t help but wonder if Taekwoon always looks like this… And, as a scientist…

Maybe he will test this out.


	12. Chapter 12

Taekwoon is reading lines of code silently as Hongbin rests aimlessly against his chest. He gave himself the trouble of putting some pants on at least that's already something, the fingers of Taekwoon's free hand thread into his hair slowly and Hongbin thinks of work.

Taekwoon's room smells like him and spilled coffee…

He is not really a cuddler but he feels just too lazy to get up and walk out as he's been meaning to do since he shimmied into his pants again. “If you keep touching my hair I'll just fall asleep on you…” He half-coherently complains, not really moving but poking every visible freckle Taekwoon has on his torso softly, as if to count them.

Taekwoon stops and he scrunches his nose. “Didn't told you to stop…”

“Make up your mind, brat.” Taekwoon says, not unkindly, but Hongbin doubts a man with a voice this soft will ever sound unkind. Regardless his fingers slide along his scalp again and Hongbin makes a dismissive sound, one that means he isn't really paying attention.

“What time is it now?”

“Late.” Taekwoon places the portable down, pressing over his eyes for they sting after reading in the dark like this.

“I should go…”

“Jaehwan said he's planning on gathering everyone to play cards tonight. You up for it?” He doesn't protest when Hongbin pushes himself away from him to go get dressed (properly dressed that is) and maybe fix his hair a bit.

“Is Sanghyuk going?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Y'all gonna lose horribly… I don't know, maybe I'll go?” He makes a face as he pulls a shirt over his head. “Just cards?”

“A few drinks too, maybe some truth or dare. I'm sure someone is going to suggest it.” Taekwoon sighs, laying in bed again, running a hand over his face.

“Seems like something Jaehwan would do. He gets all frisky when he's drunk.” Hongbin presses down at the lump on his shoulders, he shouldn't have laid like that, he's naturally tense now it's worse. “Are you okay?”

“Just a little headache.” Taekwoon smiles with half-lidded eyes and Hongbin tries to fix his hair at least partially. “You look like a mess Kong.”

“You never saw me off duty.” Hongbin scoffs and Taekwoon goes to touch his hair again, a slow touch that causes Hongbin to close his eyes and hum, pleased… “I really like this hair touching thing…” He admits out loud and Taekwoon chuckles says his sister's used to do that when he was a kid, the hair touching. It helped him sleep.

“I was never with my sisters but I’m sure they wouldn’t do that. My family was never all touchy you know.” Hongbin says, climbing on top of Taekwoon again and seeing him exhale... He’s heavy after all. “I only saw them sometimes… birthdays, holidays, that kind of thing.”

“Didn’t you feel lonely?”

“Nah, my grandma’s the best… I was homeschooled until around middle school.” He says, trying to pick pieces of his memory from when he was younger, hands sliding up Taekwoon’s chest. “And the house I grew up on had some pretty large yard in the back, you know, all things considered… Grandma used to grow some things there, that’s why I think this processed shit the Federation sells tastes like trash.”

“That’s before the new relocation for habitacional zones, right?” Hongbin hums in agreement, leaning down to plant some kisses on Taekwoon’s collarbones. “I lost the whole thing. I was in boarding school… The military boarding school, you know? My father wanted me to work for the Federation like him and I don’t know... at the time this seemed like an okay idea.” Hongbin slides his hands down the covers and between Taekwoon's legs again, he smiles when Taekwoon melts a little against the mattress. “Are you trying to start shit again?”

“Hm, maybe…” Hongbin eyes the bruised purple mark of his teeth on Taekwoon’s neck, there is some pride involved after all… The fact that Taekwoon did not try to hide it also did things to him. He was just wearing one of those v-neck shirts… Hongbin could see the edge of it whenever Taekwoon moved a little too much.

It’s so easy to just stay around when Taekwoon is not asking anything, making no fuss over how much time he spends working or how they sometimes ignore each other in the cafeteria. “Is _maybe_ a yes?”

“Well it isn’t a no.”

Taekwoon rolls them over in a swift motion and they fall off the bed and into the carpeted floor with a muted gasp… Oh… That’s where the smell of coffee is coming from. “You do realize I could have hit my head and died, right?” Hongbin comments idly and Taekwoon smiles cheekily.

“ _Maybe._ ”

“You’re so lame...” Hongbin says with a small smile, among the mess of sheets and the one pillow from Taekwoon’s bed that had fell earlier tonight. Taekwoon smiles that cheeky smile he generally only ever uses in circumstances such as this one, hair tousled over, he kisses him once… twice… Taekwoon’s lips taste like his smile, like his breathless little laugh.

Like the rustle of clothes being taken off again and the feeling of Taekwoon easing _into him_  again easily when Hongbin parts his legs because they didn’t even cool off since the last round. He breathes in, trying to fill his lungs with air that doesn’t ever reach his brain, blunt nails tracing more angry lines down the canvas of Taekwoon’s pale back.

Taekwoon uses some unknown perfume Hongbin can’t name on top of his head but smells nice either way, it’s so much better than that soap they use in the communal bathroom. “You okay...?” Taekwoon always asks, and Hongbin thinks is kind of endearing of him to be so considerate considering the terms of their arrangements.

“ _Gimme a sec…_ ” Hongbin squirms just a little, out of breath, the pressure is wanted but not welcomed, there is already so much going on inside him from simply being this close… The distinct sensation that he is going to burst takes him over again.

Wanting to keep this a secret forever, not because he is ashamed of Taekwoon, ashamed of being so easy to bend… No. Not that.

It’s the idea that only they know about it that makes it so important.

Something no one else can touch.

No one else can label.

“ _M’fine… go._ ” He manages, forcing his shoulders to relax, the tight knot inside his guts to loosen some, the little shivers up his spine to stop so he can at least take this one deep breath and see Taekwoon grabbing a hold on his waist hiding his face into the crook of his neck to groan softly and be slow...

Be nice.

Slide into him slow and with shaky hands because Hongbin knows he wants to go faster than this but he doesn’t want to hurt him, they both have to work tomorrow. Hongbin appreciates the care, the intention behind it… Kisses over Taekwoon’s cheeks, dusted in a warm pink… So very human.

He is probably in a similar state, and sure it feels weird to say it… As if they could be anything other than humans but…

It’s been quite a long time since Hongbin last stopped to look at himself, not as a _Dr. Lee Hongbin, biologist, geneticist, one of the youngest and most promising doctors not working under the Federation_ , but as Lee Hongbin who likes taking pictures every once in awhile, doesn’t know how to swim and is afraid of horror movies.

Taekwoon is a reminder of sorts.

He makes things less stale, he gives some movement to his life, some rush… A rush Hongbin had forgotten, a good rush.

If Hongbin was to be sentimental about it, he would maybe call Taekwoon a gust of wind in a world that runs of recycled oxygen. That Taekwoon makes him think of his youth running around in the yard as his grandparents played chess.

He’s not a sentimental.

So he only thinks about the way Taekwoon gets him off.

“I know you want to give more than that…” He pants the words out and Taekwoon growls like a wounded animal. “I’m a taker… Go on, mess me up.”

“Don’t start me Hongbin, you’ll regret it...”

“Even if I did, I would never admit that out loud.” Taekwoon scoffs. “I’m _asking_ you-” He pushes Taekwoon’s shoulders back so he can see his eyes, see the contained fire in there. He’s cute… “Show me what you’re made off.”

Taekwoon stills for a second, and the sound of him breathing is already enough to mess up his circuits. He runs a hand over his hair, and Hongbin starts squirming because it doesn’t _matter_ what he does, he just has to _do something_.

“Well, I don’t want to hear from you tomorrow...” That’s all Taekwoon tells him before flipping him around and kissing his spine. Hongbin hugs the pillow he had been resting against and hums, inhaling deeply. _It smells like Taekwoon… Much like everything around here._

This time Taekwoon’s fingers dig into his waist and it feels nice, feels like he _wants this_.

Wants _him_.

And Hongbin really likes the idea of being _wanted_.

Likes the idea of being _owned_ just as much but he and Taekwoon never spoke about that. He doesn’t think they _have to_ with the way Taekwoon snaps his hips forward like he is trying to break him apart.

Maybe he will…

Maybe he won’t.

Hongbin is just here for the ride.

Taekwoon leaves tiny breathless kisses over his spine, bites at his shoulders and makes this sound Hongbin cannot place into words, a sound that only ever serves to melt his insides further. He hides his eyes inside the pillow and moans, not too high, but it earns him a kiss in the neck and Taekwoon whispering _liked that_ into his ears, making him shiver.

One of his hands comes hold at one of his wrists and _squeeze_ hard enough he thinks it’ll probably bruise.

_It doesn’t matter, nothing really does, not right now…_

The other hands comes between his parted legs and _pump_ with just the right amount of pressure… He stops breathing, heartbeat so very loud of his ears, so _so loud_.

His breath stutters once, and he turns to grab a hold on Taekwoon’s hand and intertwines his fingers together without much thought.

It doesn’t last… he falls apart with a strangled little whine, light headed and wheezing from holding his breath for too long. Taekwoon holds him close when he comes, with a breathy little groan whispered right into Hongbin’s left ear.

The floorspace is too small to fit them both and they end up in a little heap of limbs and sheets and probably cum and a stain of coffee somewhere Hongbin can’t really see much now. “ _God bless you Jung Taekwoon…_ ” Hongbin mumbles softly into the pillows and Taekwoon laughs a little breathless chuckle, looking up at the ceiling. “My knees are _busted..._ ”

“Mm… Mine too.” Taekwoon pants a little, trying to catch his breath, pushing the hair away from his eyes.

“I call dibs on the shower, and I will fight you for it.” He winces to sit back up. _Fuck… his back_ … He looks down at the mess between his thighs, admittedly a little disgusted about it. “Gross…”

“You can go first.” Taekwoon admonishes a little sheepishly, hugging the pillow he reclaimed the moment Hongbin sat back up. “I need to catch my breath for a second anyway.”

“Hm… I keep forgetting you’re old.” Taekwoon slaps his back and Hongbin makes a sound of complain. “ _Ow, what was that?_ ”

“You deserved it.” Taekwoon clicks his tongue. “Stop calling me old.”

“Then stop _acting like an old man. Geez..._ ” He goes crawls around, trying to fetch his clothes from the obscure places they ended on and with Taekwoon still being obtrusive and not moving at all from his position. “You’re such a fucking hassle.”

“But the sex is pretty good.” Taekwoon chuckles, watching Hongbin shimmy into his pants for the second time.

Hongbin makes a face when he turns to look at him. “Point taken.”

“Thank you.” Hongbin grumbles a not as grumpy as it could be _whatever_ Taekwoon smiles at. “Are you going to join us for a drink?”

“I think I need an excuse as to why I’ll be invalid tomorrow so sure.” He shrugs, trying to get his other shoe from under the wardrobe.

Taekwoon laughs again. “You never struck me as the kind to be this reckless.” Hongbin sits back up, shoe in hand, and hums. _His shirt can’t be that far, right?_

“Funny you mention that cuz’ you never struck me as the kind to fuck in a public bathroom either but hey aren’t looks deceiving?” Hongbin huffs trying to identify if the little stain he sees on his shirt was already there or…

“I don’t usually do that so you’re not totally wrong.” Taekwoon says, looking back up at the ceiling. “Had the right motivation I guess.”

“Thanks, you’re pretty hot yourself.” Taekwoon starts laughing again and Hongbin offers a smile of his own. Taekwoon has a cute laugh… Surprisingly soft for a man this tall and this brutish. “Meet you in the recreation halls?”

“Sure.”

He makes a point at taking some clean clothes before going to the bathroom… He feels oddly light tonight. It's a fuzzy feeling.

And of course but the time he reaches the recreation halls Taekwoon is not there yet and Sanghyuk waves at him enthusiastically. “Dude, over here!”

“Hey.”

“Hongbinnie, you're joining us?”

“Can't I?” He pulls his chair back to the table and Sanghyuk hands him a bottle of beer he's not all that sure how they came to have on board when they don't even have enough toilet paper.

“Not at all. Glad you finally joined us.” Jaehwan says with a smile as Hongbin scans the table after familiar faces. Wonshik is here, on the other edge of the table, with Hakyeon and half of the greenhouse.

Hongbin's is surprised Hakyeon is coming too. Can the captain be hungover? Probably not.

But hey, what even are security laws?

Not too long after Taekwoon is joining them too, sitting beside Wonshik on the table and opening his bottle of beer with his teeth which can't be good really. He can't listen to their conversation from here which is really a shame.

Hongbin stops paying attention when Jaehwan starts drawing cards, he says he won't play and leans towards Sanghyuk to silently watch him destroy everybody in this game. He never played cards with him before but he knows Sanghyuk's family had a day on the week they reserved to play cards… every week… for more than fifteen years.

He also knows Sanghyuk is a competitive little shit which is primarily how he got this job and how he got free tutorship in college and how he won all those stupid awards in highschool on every science fair.

Granted Jaehwan declares he's not drunk enough to be this humiliated in a card game. “Next time I won't invite you.” Jaehwan grumbles, throwing his useless hand of card on the table.

“Don't be that sour hyung, is just cards.” Hongbin rolls his eyes, not even Sanghyuk believes what he just said let alone Jaehwan.

Then his eyes fall to the other end of the table for a second, catching Hakyeon and Taekwoon talking about something and Taekwoon must have made a witty commentary for Hakyeon shoulders him to the side and Taekwoon almost falls off his chair, laughing at his expense just for Taekwoon to slap his neck lightly.

They used to be together… that was a thing that happened in real life. This still makes him uncomfortable to think about.

But that's none of his business, they don't have anything with each other.

“Enough of this misery! I wanna play something else~” Jaehwan manifests his utter displeasure and Hongbin turns to look at him again. “But what can we play?”

“Oh I know, how about truth or dare? It's so _great_.” Hongbin is certain he sounds mocking when he says that but maybe not because Jaehwan is hugging his arm and say how _smart he is thank you Hongbinnie_.

They are all grown up adults in this room, just a reminder because Hongbin forgets that sometimes. “Who wants to play Truth or Dare?” Jaehwan is yelling to the rest of the table and Hongbin is already prepared to say he isn't but Jaehwan is all over him saying _he was the one I suggest it so he has to play, everybody in a circle guys!_

“Okay okay so Hakyeon truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

From the side Jaehwan calls Hakyeon a _wuss_ and _oh we're back in highschool for real guys._

_That's it Hongbin needs to go study for his history test guys._

_That's a thing now._

“Is it true.” Sanghyuk starts carefully. “That you've dated Taekwoon in the past?”

“Yeah.” This time Jaehwan gasps, it doesn't seem like a secret so Hongbin wonders how come no one knew about it. Maybe because it's not really important but when you're locked on a base underwater for months doing the exact same thing everyday… well everything is game, probably.

“How was it? Is dating Hakyeon as impossible as it seems?” Jaehwan says cheekily and Hakyeon pinches his side really hard for Jaehwan curls into himself a little to whine.

And they spin the bottle again. It lands on Hongbin this time. “Truth or dare Hongbinnie?” Hongbin's not drunk enough for this.

“Dare.” As in highschool, the small cheering of _oh_ ’s starts right after the words fall of his lips.

“I dare you to…” Jaehwan seems to be thinking, that until whispers something to him and Hongbin makes a face at it. Sanghyuk knows too much. “Ooh… I dare you to kiss Taekwoon right now.”

“Won't do it.” He declares and it sounds pretty simple. “What's the punishment?”

“Aw, come on Hongbinnie it's just a game!” Jaehwan bounces in place and Hongbin sets his first empty bottle down. “Is it your first kiss or something really stupid like that?”

“Won’t do it.” The rest of the table is still talking and Hongbin gets up to grab another bottle. “Decide on a punishment before I come back.” Now where do they keep the bottles… He is nowhere drunk enough to take a trip down memory lane and play fucking _truth or dare_. His gaze gets tangled with Taekwoon's on his way back, it lasts only a second and he cannot name _what_ he saw in there but there was _something_ … Regardless he sits down in time to see Taekwoon picking truth. Now is not the time to think of that. “So how was dating Hakyeon?” Taekwoon makes a disgruntled noise and Hakyeon turns to him, very much interested in his answer it seems.

“I don't... we were friends and he was there in a very weird time of my life and… I mean, I guess he’s nice. He cares a lot… about people and stuff I don't know.” Taekwoon manages, he's not really good with words he's better with actions and numbers and impulse.

“The sex was great.” Hakyeon says offhandedly and Taekwoon hides his face into his palms for a moment. Weird considering he said the exact same thing to Hongbin without even flinching. “But I think it was the only great part in the end.”

Taekwoon looks at him. “I don't but whatever… it's over either way.”

“You didn't even care.”

“Well, clearly neither did you. I'm not gonna start this up again.”

“Oh no, you don't get to play the sad one. I waited for you, I waited for a long time.”

Taekwoon empties the rest of his bottle. “Yeah sure you did, are you really gonna discuss that _now_?”

“ _Taekwoon can you stop bailing on me for once in your life?_ ”

“It doesn't matter! What do you want me to say? You're ten years too late to give a shit about how I felt.”

“You're such a fucking coward...Ten years, an entire _decade_ , and you're still hiding.”

“ _Me?_ Well, fuck you, _Captain._ ” Taekwoon is getting up and walking out and Wonshik is looking at him go. Pushing up to his feet a second too late.

“Hakyeon–”

“I _know,_ okay? Whatever, just go after him and leave me alone.” Wonshik throws him a reprobative look and goes after Taekwoon and a second later Hakyeon is announcing he will go to bed and leaving as well.

“Well that was a bad idea.” Hongbin comments through the last of his bottle. “See y'all tomorrow.”

Breakfast will sure be delightful.

The way to his room seem so long from here… He never steps too far out of that triangle between his room, the lab and the cafeteria… it must be what? The fifth time he ever stepped into the recreation halls? He prioritizes sleeping above beer and card games.

But still the end of that game left a bad taste on his tongue. For many reasons… Maybe he shouldn't have drinken anything, maybe he should have kissed Taekwoon in front of everyone and ended this stigma they had against him, maybe he shouldn't have even come.

And slept a few more hours.

God knows he needs those…

“ _Hongbin_.” Wonshik comes running down the hallway and impressively, he is not out of breath from it. “Wait up.”

Hands stuffed into the front pockets of his hoodie and picking the small balls of lint that accumulate in the corners after too many washes, Hongbin tries to look not tipsy. “What?” It works.

“I just wanted to tell you… Taekwoon's on the training center, beside the greenhouse.”

“And you ran all the way here to tell me that because…” Hongbin arches a brow. “I mean no offense, but aren't _you_ his friend and whatever?”

“I just… thought maybe you'd like to know? I don't know you two seemed friendly the other day and since I don't see you being friendly with much anyone I thought–”

“I'm not his friend Wonshik I just see him a lot. We both work on the lowest floor.” Wonshik seems a bit awkward at that and Hongbin gets awkward too in return because that's a thing that happens... _Being awkward in public._

“Yeah, I mean… I'm not implying anything.”

“Uh… Yeah, sure.” Another uncomfortable moment of silence stretches and Hongbin points towards a door by the end of the hallway. “I'm going… Like…”

“Oh, sure I… Good night.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Relief hits him once he finally closes the door behind him. Sitting on his bed in the dark and thinking about the fact that he never _knew_ they had a training center in this base because he never lingers around the top floors… Especially not near the greenhouse.

He wonders what other thing they have and he's unaware off…

He wonders if Taekwoon is okay. Not that this has anything to do with him because in all honesty Taekwoon is none of his business…  but… as previously discussed he is not one to be comfortable when people getting openly _sad._

He is not sure if sad is the word to describe Taekwoon's state but… He can't tell, the man is a soft creature, he may be sad… Sad enough for Wonshik to come to _him_ (imagine _that_ ) and tell him where Taekwoon was because... Because? What would he even do?

Pet him on the back? Say _there there_ and pretend he knows what he's doing? He doesn't.

At all.

He knows Hakyeon doesn't like to be disturbed when he's mad. That much he knows well but he doesn't know _Taekwoon_ well… Is he the type to want space or…

He sits back up. In his pajamas something like one hour later thinking of how he's a nervous creature and he does not bode well with _not knowing shit_. He's a _scientist_ goddamn it.

So slippers on, time to push boundaries, be invasive, regret a lot of decisions and shit… Yeah.

Now _where's_ the training center? And training for what? Not die in a flood? Maybe? That'd be useful…

He should have eaten something before drinking but _oh no_ , _past Hongbin likes to live dangerously_.

My God he's kind of sick but it's fine. College Hongbin was always sort of hungover but he graduated didn't he? He's here now, alive and making more stupid mistakes and other cool stuff along those lines.

This whole base is twenty times spookier because of those panels Jesus Christ… now training center… Training center… He doesn't even know how that looks like but isn't that an _adventure_?

 _More adventure woah that's great_ but no it isn't adventure sucks a whole lot. _But hey he brought one of his blankets because it's as cold as Hongbin’s heart around here._

He made a joke cuz he's funny and slightly, belatedly drunk too… _Ops._

And yeah, he sure hopes no one sees him because he has this covers over his shoulders and he must look either like a eight year old waking up on a Sunday morning to watch cartoons (a 6ft tall eight year old that is) or a very pretty ghost.

He squints his eyes in the dark, to the first door beside the greenhouse and that _ominous_ humming sound that comes from the door and it's at least twelve times creepier because he's alone and in the dark and it's cold as hell Jesus fuck.

He pulls the blankets closer around him and pushes the door that reads _training center_ with his back. It's one of those barred doors with no knobs his grandma calls _anti-panic_ doors because you can literally body slam the door and it'd still open and he's rambling now _stop._

Taekwoon is easy to find, the sound of the punching bags being… uh… well, punched makes it easier for him to know where to go, even in the dark. He has good ears. “Taekwoon?”

“ _What now?_ ” He turns to Hongbin in his slippers and pajamas and uh… a blanket on his shoulders and whatever it was that he had to say as a protest seems to give way to a frown.

“Are you sad?” Hongbin's question is as straightforward as it can get and as simplistic as the mindset of the eight years old he's cosplaying currently.

“You came all the way here to ask that? In your pajamas?” The way Taekwoon words things makes him feel like he's doing something wrong but he just didn't want to change back. He's pajamas were warm already that's no crime. “What did you drink?”

“I'm serious.”

“I am too. Are you drunk?”

“I had two bottles, I'm okay. Are _you_ okay?”

“I'm… Blowing some steam is all.” Taekwoon scratches his neck, he's all sweaty again. “Don't worry.”

“I'm not, I'm just asking.” Hongbin is being cheeky, he's always been cheeky. That's it. “Let's work.”

“What? Now?”

“Yeah. I mean, we can't work _work_ because we're resurfacing but I'm sure you can do something that'll help you relax and won't split your knuckles.” He grabs one of Taekwoon's hands squints his eyes in the poor lights at his raw knuckles. His hands feel cold as per usual. “Can you… I don’t know, build something?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know shit about robotics. Try to be surprising you dull old man.” Taekwoon pushes him to the side and Hongbin almost trips on his own blanket and falls.

“I need some spare parts.” He grabs Hongbin by the arm and pulls him along. “Let’s go.”

“I never volunteered.”

“Shut up. Let’s go.”

And they go, Hongbin being dragged back down to that same dusty room with boxes of trash and rust and Taekwoon taking a thing that looks like a pen from his pocket and sitting cross legged on the floor. Hongbin taking the bundle of his blankets and trying to keep it away from all that dust none too quietly, grumbling _why was he here if he’s not even the one who's sad?_

Nagging Taekwoon gracefully ignores until he finally stops, sitting on the floor of a crumpled little badly lighten room in the middle of the night in his pajamas. Watching how Taekwoon’s hands move around the piles of pieces and shards, using that pen to weld the little pieces together. Hongbin almost asks why would he carry a welding pen around, but then again… He’s an engineer. “What are you doing?”

“A simple mechanism… We have quite a few old clock pieces here I won’t ever use.”

“Why we have clock pieces on board?”

“I don’t know.” Taekwoon shrugs lightly, the tension on his shoulders dissipated a little when he started searching for pieces. “You know, I used to do little things at home too… When I was younger.” Hongbin looks up at him. “My aunts would buy me some expensive toys and I would break them to little pieces and build something else out of it.” He smiles a little. “My mom used to get so mad at me for it…”

“I would too.” Hongbin hums at him, eyes going back to his hands and to the small cogs.

“I really like… building things… Fixing things.” His voice is really soft, Hongbin notices not for the first time. “My father always said creation was in the gene of the Jung family.”

“Is it?”

Taekwoon shrugs again. “My mom used to work for the Federation too, as a flight attendant. My sisters all work in hospitals… I don’t really know what they do. We kind of stopped talking when I went to boarding school. I’m not good in… Keeping in touch, you know.”

“Me neither.” Hongbin tells him. “Aside from my grandma I’m not really all that close to the rest of the family… But then again, I didn’t grew up with them.”

“Don’t you miss them? You parents? Your sisters?”

This time is Hongbin who shrugs. “They were never there for me to miss them.”

“That’s… sad.” Taekwoon makes a little apologetic face Hongbin dismisses with a wave of his hand.

“Nah, my grandma is really great.” He hums, toying with the little holes of his blanket, needing to keep his hands occupied. “She was there all the time, and I don’t know… It was enough for me.”

“That’s good then.”

“Yeah… she’s great.”

“Do you miss her?”

“A lot. But like, downsides of the job I guess.” Taekwoon hums at that and they fall silent again. His eyes going to observe the way Taekwoon’s fingers seem so clumsy when he holds the tiny pieces together for welding. _Is this a good time to make an attempt at comfort? Is it? Will it ever be a good time?_ “You know…” _Oh boy, let’s get to the regretting part._ “You shouldn’t think about what Hakyeon said too much, he holds some grudges. There was this one time I spilled tea on his shirt and he like, makes sure to mention this every year on our last resurface before the holidays.”

Taekwoon scoffs. “Yeah, that sounds like him…” He sighs, eyes still on the little lump of cogs on his hands.

“Something tells me the conditions of that break up weren’t as smooth as I was led to believe.” Hongbin comments, avoiding Taekwoon’s eyes by staring the mess of cogs too.

“I cried a lot, yeah.” Taekwoon scoffs, sheepish, flicking his fringe back and out of his eyes. “But Hakyeon he… He only ever cares about the big things. About big fancy dates and big gestures and big words and I… I’m not like that.” Hongbin prefers not to talk, right now a witty comment didn’t seem welcomed at all. “It was bound to happen. I just wish he’d let this die… It was so long ago and it won’t change anything now.”

“Hakyeon believes in fixing the past.”

“Well, I don’t.” Taekwoon mentions casually. “You have a pen?”

“No. I don’t carry pens on my pajamas.” Taekwoon chuckles lightly, a little _I suppose not_ falling off his lips as he looks for some tiny scraps into the box he has been using, welding pieces to the surface of the little lump and… It looks like a face.

A tiny…

Creepy…

And slightly deformed face.

With a crooked little smile and two cogs of different sizes working as… Eyes? A cartoonish looking little… thing. Taekwoon winds up the cord in it’s back and puts it on the floor so it can move it’s little stumped uneven feet and walk. Walk until it hits Hongbin’s shin and falls to the side. “It works I guess.”

“You can have it.”

“I don’t want it.” He says, simply.

“It was your idea so…” Taekwoon makes a movement of hand, grabbing the little thing with one hand and turning Hongbin’s palm upwards with the other, pushing the little trashy thing into it. “Take it.”

“Thank you for the ugly paper weight.” He makes a face.

“You’re very welcome.”

“Are you feeling better at least?”

“I suppose I am… I guess.” Taekwoon says as Hongbin turns his judgemental eyes to the little windup toy. “Thank you for dragging me here.”

“It was you who dragged me here you doo–” A kiss, again, because Taekwoon can never let him finish his sentences. Pesky creature. Regardless they are alone and Taekwoon is smiling a little against his lips so… Well it’s okay.

“Thank you for letting me drag you here.” He breathes against his lips when he backs off just a little.

“Yeah… you’re welcome.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a while but I'm back


	13. Chapter 13

Today Hongbin only ventured into wearing some black v-neck he found in the back of his wardrobe. The panel on the wall says the air conditioning would be out for most of the morning. Overheating is forcing Hongbin into wearing something different from a hoodie for once.

He doesn’t expect Hakyeon to join them for breakfast. He’s not really one to come apologize first. Not in a situation like this. Jaehwan and Sanghyuk are there already when Hongbin sits down with his cup of tea and something they named _bagel_ despite it not being a bagel at all. “Morning Kong, it’s the first time I see your arms in the least five months.” The sleeves go to his elbow but it’s a lot more skin than Hongbin is used to present. “You look nice in black.”

“I’m hot.”

“Oh my _god_. Can you _stop_ this? We _all know_ you’re handsome, geez.” Jaehwan throws his arms up and Hongbin blinks, lips around the brim of his mug.

“Hot as in... my body temperature is high… I’m sweating.”

“Oh… Yeah, in this case, I am too.” Jaehwan takes a measured sip from his glass and Hongbin thinks of how picking a hot beverage when he’s already sweating was a bad decision.

Sanghyuk scoffs around his cup of coffee. “Oh, the lab is locked for today. You saw the notification, right?” Hongbin nods but doesn’t say anything. “Are you going to survive an entire day locked out of the laboratory, Kong? I can keep you company to make sure you won’t break into abstinence from work.”

“Where’s Taekwoon?” He sets the cup down and Sanghyuk makes a dismissive little sound.

“Well, I heard from Wonshik he’s going to talk to Hakyeon and then he’ll be at the engineer quarters working on our overheating problem.” Jaehwan spins the glass over the table. He’s probably juggling with guilt after yesterday’s incident. Hongbin won’t poke fun at it, that’s no laughing matter. “Why you ask?”

“Nothing much… Thinking about picking the camera in the lab and snapping some shots around.” He finally gives up on the tea and crosses his arms over the table. The taste and the heat combined are not something Hongbin’s ready to go through simultaneously. “Could take some pics of him.”

“Of Taekwoon? Why? Gonna print a pic for your wallet?” Sanghyuk teases in that passive aggressive tone of his. Hongbin resists the urge to growl at him.

“Yeah. He’s totally my crush after all, have to carry a pic on me to jerk off at night.” He comments idly, Jaehwan immediately chokes on his glass of juice.

“ _Ew! Hongbin, no!_ ” Sanghyuk’s face of disgust is enough to make it all worth it... This and the sight of Jaehwan coughing like a man taken down by tuberculosis. “Geez, look what you did.” Sanghyuk is a better human being so he pats Jaehwan’s back... Hongbin’s barely even functional, he was homeschooled until he was fourteen.

“See ya.”

He’ll just drop by the lab and get his camera. After yesterday’s discovery (the training center and whatnot) Hongbin came to the conclusion that this base is _fucking huge_ and he could maybe walk around for a bit. He can’t work so he might as well keep himself occupied.

Wander around the base carrying an old camera like an absolute creep taking pictures of people he doesn’t know and objects in pleasing dispositions as people look at him funny. “Hongbin?”

Hongbin turns to see Hakyeon with a clipboard in hand, standing from across the room and trying to understand why he’s crouching in front of the plastic potted plant beside the door. “Hey.”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What does it like like I’m doing?”

“Creeping, scaring the personnel of this floor… Taking a picture? Of a plastic plant?” Hakyeon comes over and Hongbin gets up. That’s actually a nice picture.

“I’d say it’s settled then. That’s what I’m doing.”

Hakyeon hums. “You’re dressed nicely. What’s the occasion?”

“I’m hot.”

Hakyeon stops for a moment, blinking as if surprised by the answer. “Well, that’s…”

Hongbin groans. “ _Temperature._ I’m talking about _temperature._ ” Hakyeon’s lips form a little _oh_ in understanding.

“You scared me for a second.”

“I’m sure.”

“Well stop scaring my crew. Go somewhere else, shoo.”

 

 

~+~

 

 

Supervisor Han hasn’t been coming to work and Taekwoon is moderately pissed about it. Sure she fucked up some but that’s no excuse to avoid work and stay in her work doing whatever (whatever that isn’t working). To make it worse it’s too hot and wearing a shirt is becoming unbearable. Sure they had to take down the secondary systems but operating in temperatures such as this cannot be good for the main engine _or_ the portables.

His talk with Hakyeon was short and he’s not sure if effective was the best word to describe it either but it’s the best they can do for now. “You won’t believe what I just saw, Nayoung.” In Haebin’s absence, Nayoung was meant to do the supervising work, she was neither as fast _or_ as skilled as Haebin when it came to robotics but with Taekwoon there she didn’t have much to do other than offer support every once in awhile.

“What is it?”

“You know that hot biologist? The one Bora has a massive crush on?”

“The dimpled one?” She spins her chair to face Mina by the door, she nods enthusiastically. “Yeah, go on.”

“I just saw him. And oh my _god_ … Bora just _has_ to come check him out.” This whole talk makes Taekwoon think of his sisters. They used to talk like that… On a faded out memory Taekwoon thinks of when they were in college and his sister got her first _massive crush_ on a guy.

He was too young and too introspective to actually meddle but the terminology stuck with him, as most things do. He is one to remember everything… Nostalgic by nature and by necessity. “She’s gonna talk about it for a _week_ Mina, I don’t think I can handle that again.”

Nayoung is much more collected, less prone of squealing than Mina, Taekwoon came to notice. He prefers it like that… When they don’t actually feel the need to fill the silence with small talk, when his silence doesn’t make people squirm. She hasn’t squirmed, not even once.

Actually, she seemed to be pretty strong willed. Taekwoon could admire that. “Aren’t you two friends, Taekwoon-oppa?” She asks Taekwoon, unabashedly, and Nayoung makes a nervous motion for her to be quiet and _not distract him with such futilities._

Taekwoon was already distracted but that’s irrelevant, he figures. “Friends with?” He feigns innocence because it doesn’t seem appropriate for him to be listening to the conversations that are none of his business. He prefers not to meddle on things that are _none of his business_ if possible.

Alas, it’s not always possible. “The hot biologist guy. Dr. Lee.” Nayoung hides her face in silent embarrassment and Mina smiles at him as if this is normal or even remotely acceptable of a topic to be discussed with her first in comment during work-hours in their work-space.

“You mean Hongbin?”

“Yes, him!” She claps her hands together in such a animated fashion Taekwoon feels the urge to smile. He’s almost a decade older than her and he can’t help but think she’s oddly endearing despite all the noise and the short attention-span.

“I wouldn’t call us friends. But I do know him.” He says, turning back to the keyboard and his endless lines of code.

“So, our friend Bora has a _huge crush_ on him.” She says despite everything and Nayoung makes this strangled sound Taekwoon scoffs a little chuckle at.

“ _Mina!_ ” Nayoung’s exasperation makes Taekwoon smile down at the keyboard, good thing none of them can see that. It would be hard to explain and he has such a silly looking smile. He would prefer if they kept respecting him.

“ _What?_ Taekwoon-oppa is nice, he won’t tell right?”

“Sure I won’t.” He hums and Mina whispers this harsh sounding _see_ Nayoung groans loudly at. Taekwoon chuckles again.

“So, _as I was saying_ , our friend has this huge crush on him for the longest time now but he doesn’t seem to like… Uh… Befriend people. I mean, at all.” Mina continues speaking and Taekwoon hums in amused encouragement. “But since you’re friends with him, you could… I don’t know, maybe give her some tips on things he likes and whatnot.”

“Oh my _god_.” Nayoung finally says out loud. “I’m sorry sir, you don’t have to answer to any of that. She’s young and sometimes she behaves like a schoolgirl.” She chides as if she’s the girl’s mom and Mina pokes her tongue out as an actual school girl would.

Taekwoon chuckles softly, putting the system to check if there’s any failure on his coding before continuing. He has to save stuff or he’ll end up just like he did last time, angry as fuck because he lost five hours of programming after a power shutdown. “It’s fine. I don’t think there’s anything useful I can tell you, Mina… I know very little about Hongbin myself.”

“I heard my name what’s up?” Hongbin struts in like he owns the place, a camera in one hand and a plastic rose on the other. “Actually, I don’t give a fuck. Hello.”

“Hongbin?” Taekwoon arches a brow and Hongbin places the flower on his hair as if he has any right to be doing this in the first place, snapping a picture afterwards with absolutely no explanation or question or context. “What? _Stop._ ” Taekwoon turns his face away and Hongbin laughs.

“Cute.” He smiles, that smile with dimples that seem to fool everyone around. Taekwoon included. “Saw this rose and it made me think of you.” He says, voice sweet and Taekwoon makes a face at it.

“How so?”

“It’s cheap. And bland. And easy to overlook if you’re not playing close attention.” In a sense he’s really relieved this didn’t turn mushy but on the other hand he pushes Hongbin to the side because he has two hands...

_Jokes ladies and gentlemen._

“ _Brat._ ” Hongbin laughs out loud. He’s probably proud of his joke. _He’s such a little shit._ “You look hot.”

“Well, thank you.” Hongbin says, unapologetic, looking down at his own clothes as if he’s surprised by Taekwoon’s words in some way.

“I mean you’re sweating.” Taekwoon clarifies, hand pushing Hongbin’s sweaty bangs away from his eyes. “You should use something fresher, you’re gonna faint like this.”

Hongbin snaps another photo and Taekwon pinches his side. “ _Stop that._ ” He would pinch him again but Hongbin steps out of his reach and he’s not in the mood to get up.

“Is that all the fight you have in you? You’re such an old man.”

“Hongbin I’m _busy_.”

“Then do your thing I’ll be quiet.” He sits in a corner and Taekwoon sighs.

This kid… “As if I’ll be able to concentrate with you taking pictures.”

“It’s your own fault for being aesthetically pleasing.” He snaps another picture and Taekwoon whines.

“ _Hongbin~_ ”

“ _Alright_... Sheesh. I’ll be back later. But _only_ because I want the air con back online.” He gets back up, finally lowering that damned camera. Taekwoon sighs in obvious relief and Hongbin finally skips out of the room, giggling as if this is funny.

As Hongbin finally leaves Taekwoon takes the plastic rose from his hair, Nayoung and Mina exchange looks.

“Are you sure you’re not friends, oppa?” Mina asks as Hongbin’s back retreats in the hallway.

“He’s disrespectful and cheeky and sassy. Tell your friends the only advice I have is that the dimples don’t play off.” Taekwoon scoffs softly. “And we’re not friends, friends is a strong word.”

“What word would you use.”

“Strange cheeky kid sometimes comes to my section to insult me in front of my underlings is a good term.”

 

_Coding verified, matrix functional. Save?_

 

Taekwoon has so much more to work on right now. “Nayoung come here and start on the secondary levels with me.”

“Oh, uh... sure.”

He sometimes forgets, that he may have the training necessary to stay awake for many hours. _The adjustments that were set on his spine during college…_

_All engineers must have._

That's what they told him, and yes he hadn't met a single engineer that doesn't have one of those. He's not even sure they would be allowed to work… They asked the model of his modulator when he got his first job, on a huge file…

Model.

Size.

Material.

How old was he when he installed.

Detail Taekwoon pays no mind to anymore. Mechanical as reciting his ID number… or not, he hasn't strolled among civilians in a long time, and no one asks for ID numbers only guardians do that.

He steals a glance to Nayoung in the computer beside him. She struggles with keeping her eyes open… It occurs him she's not even an engineer. He stole her from her session to make do for Haebin’s absence. “Nayoung.”

She jumps in her seat and looks at him as if waiting to be reprehended. Poor kid must be tired from all this already. “Go to sleep. It's late already.”

“N-Not at all sir, I can keep going it's okay.” She seems somewhat ashamed for her behavior it seems, sitting up on her chair like this would atone for her obviously exhausted stance. Taekwoon can sympathize with it.

“I appreciate it. But it's pretty late and you need to rest. I shouldn't have held you for this long, sorry.” He says, apologetic for he tends to forget about time when he is occupied in a task. “If Haebin was here this all could be avoided.”

“She's… I think she feels guilty.” Nayoung says, looking down at her keyboard. “For the fire. I think she must have heard the guys talking about it in the quarters.”

“Look, I hope I don't sound rude when I say that,” Taekwoon sighs, pressing at his eyes. “I don't care.” Nayoung seems a little surprised by that. “We have a job to do and she better get a grip and do it. This is no simulation and I sure won't risk the safety of anyone on board waiting for her to feel like working again. You better warn her if she doesn't show up to her position tomorrow she might as well stay in her room until resurface because I don't need any slackers on my team.”

“I'll… I'll tell her sir.”

“No need to calm me sir, I'm not _that_ old. Just go to bed, I can handle everything from here.” He gives her a little smile, he doesn't really enjoy using the _boss_ status with a bunch of kids but this sort of feeble justification just doesn't sit with him. Ashamed or not she should be in her post doing her job.

This is no casual meeting, no hang out with friends, no popularity contest.

They're here to do things and self pity is her business as long as it doesn't stand in the way of her actual duty.

Taekwoon always had a particular mistrust towards weak-willed people.

“Go to bed. It's really late and you've already done enough for one day.”

“I… Yeah, o-okay. Good night.”

“You too.” He turns back to his computer as she gets up to leave.

 

~×~

 

 

Sitting in the dark Hongbin reasons with himself that little wind-up toy thing Taekwoon forced him to take is a ghost. The more the looks at it, the more convinced he is.

_He can't sleep it's too hot still._

The air con went on half an hour ago and it's _still too damn hot._

It took Taekwoon a long time to get this back in order it seems. But again it was twice the time when he wasn't here working overnight like he just can't get enough of work.

That creepy distorted ghost face stares back at him in the dark.

There's a knock on the door.

And Hongbin knows there's only one person that would have the audacity of coming to knock on his door so late at night…

He gets up to see Taekwoon in different clothes, he probably took a bath.

The air from the hallway is much colder, Hongbin is almost staying there himself. “Hey, wha-”

Taekwoon's arms come around him in silence; he doesn't kiss, he doesn't bite either, he doesn't tease, he doesn't try to take his clothes off he just… He's just there… Hugging.

He feels pleasantly cold from the air con outside but Hongbin tenses up. “Uh… so…”

“Had some exhausting day… Thinking too much. Remembered of some things I had forgotten… My head hurts.” Taekwoon says the words into the crook of his neck, voice low and perceptively gruffy. Hongbin wonders for just a second if he had been crying.

He sure hopes not for both of their sakes. “So you came here to fuck?”

“Not really… I'm tired.”

“Then…”

“I'm a cuddler.” Taekwoon admits quite shyly it seems, Hongbin is getting awkward already.

“I'm not.” He says the words quite evenly because he's really, _really_ not into cuddles… Mostly because he's a nervous creature and cuddles make him think of feelings and other things that make him sweat a lot.

“Do you want me to leave?” Fortunately Taekwoon doesn't seem hurt by his words or even bothered by them which is all fun and well but… now what to do now? He can't kick out a person that came specifically to _him_ seeking support. Is he sad? _Jesus Christ, don't be sad._

“Not… particularly…”  

But Taekwoon backs off either way, with a measured sigh and a hand running over his damp hair. Hongbin already knows he did something wrong. “No. It's fine… I shouldn't impose on you, that's not our deal.” Taekwoon says and Hongbin wants to says something but his mouth falls open stupidly and no useful words come off. “Sorry, I just knew you were awake.”

Then he's retreating and Hongbin is panicking. Holding his arm and trying to think of something to say. “ _Wait_.”  And Taekwoon stops to look at him because he's not really being dramatic or trying to chain any guilt trips into Hongbin's brain. Which he's really grateful for because it would work. “Wait, wait, wait, wait.” He drags Taekwoon back into his room and closes the door. “Wait, wait, wait.” He finally places Taekwoon sitting on the bed and Taekwoon is looking up at him with an amused little smile. “There.”

When he sits beside Taekwoon on the bed, like an awkward teen who finally managed to bring his hot crush into his room after making a bet at school, his palms are sweaty and he doesn't really know what to do. “Why is it so hot in here?” Taekwoon asks things and Hongbin just looks at him, he can't tell, he knows this temperatures is best for the development of fungus and a few types of plants but _why_ is beyond his area of expertise.

He watches Taekwoon messing with the panel beside the bed for a few seconds until the sound of the air conditioning system kicking in rumbles again in that old raspy sound Hongbin grew accustomed to after so much time. It used to keep him awake in the beginning. “Oh… Thanks.”

Turns out your hot crush can also help you reboot your old PC so you won't loose all your games and like all your stashed porn and stuff.

Hongbin had a lot of both when he was on highschool for real.  

“It's fine… I should probably check the rest of the rooms and see if anyone else is having this same issue.”

“You mean now?”

“No, not now… It's two in the morning Kong.”

“Yeah, that's why I asked…”

“What is it? You look uncomfortable. You sure you don't want me to leave?”

“Tell me… uh… about your problems and stuff.” _Oh such inspiring words my god._ “That's why you came right?”

Taekwoon gives him a little smile. “I just wanted to cuddle with you for a bit.”

“That's a lame excuse.”

Hongbin is not coping well with the nervous feelings boiling inside him. That's why he doesn't do this kind of shit… but the next second Taekwoon is peeling off his shirt and pulling him to the bed and Hongbin can't be awkward if he's breathless from hitting the mattress too hard. “I don't think talking about any of that would be good to any of us.”

“Won't know unless you try…” The line of Taekwoon's spine of sharp under his fingers, even if he's not particularly bony, his spine certainly is… There is a belated sense of comfort in being here, in bed with Taekwoon in the middle of the night...

With his collection of young feelings and his sweaty palms.

And Taekwoon hums as if he's thinking his words over, Hongbin can't even tell he read these lines in a book once and it seemed fitting that's all. “I’ll tell you some other day.”

“Okay I guess…”

“Tell me about your fishes.” He sighs and rests his head over Hongbin's chest, mercifully not asking about anything personal… nothing about his first girlfriend or why he lives with his grandparents.

He's asking about work.

That's nice.

That's easy.

“You want me to talk about… fishes?” Hongbin stares at the ceiling, mindful of Taekwoon's weight (Lord knows he's heavy) but also mindful of his soft edges.

Taekwoon's not bony like him, it seems like his face never truly lost that baby-like shape despite him being very clearly a fully grown man. Still, those shapes make him look all the younger, specially when he's quiet like this, without that menacing frown that sometimes takes over his face when he's too focused doing something he hasn't quite figured out yet.

“Your fishes, the ones you have on board, the ones you're studying. Tell me about them.”

“Hm… most of my research revolves around jellyfishes and bioluminescent animals, there are some things about some creatures that are capable of filtrating poisonous water and some that can only live on places with almost no oxygen at all…”

“When I was smaller I was given this book about abyssal fissures and I was so scared of the ocean from then on.” Taekwoon mumbles and Hongbin scoffs. He probably knows the book, it was a pretty popular one when he was young.

“I think I know the one. I really loved that book.” Hongbin hums. “Don't you think it's kind of magical that things like that exist here? Are capable of existing? Here, in the dark… with poisonous gas and under absurd pressure. Still… there are things living and breathing and multiplying.”

“It sounds like a horror movie… With things _living and breathing and multiplying_ in the dark.” Taekwoon makes a face and Hongbin laughs. Well if he is reading it like this then what can he say?

“They're fascinating.”

“Then, what are you researching?”

“I'm trying to mutate genes. For vaccines and serums.”

“So full mad scientist mode?”

“You can call it that yeah.”

“That's cool.”

“Yeah but until I have some concrete results I won't get a single coin for funding.” He sighs, counting Taekwoon's ribs and noticing he has only eleven of them. “You have eleven ribs?” That's a question with absolutely no context whatsoever.

“I had one removed on the left side to insert my spinal module back in college.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Not at all, nothing about the process did.”

“That's good then.”

They fall silent after that, Taekwoon thinking of his college years and Hongbin thinking about fishes… the urge to speak doesn't come again and Hongbin is one to babble when he gets fidgety.

Surprisingly he isn't.

He thought he would but it was much smoother than what he expected this whole ordeal to be, Taekwoon running his cold hands up his back under his shirt and his sighing, touching frizzed hairs on Taekwoon's head in peaceful silence.

It's been a very, very long time since he last indulged in… thinking about it's weird, but cuddles.

Since he last indulged in cuddles.

“I didn't think you'd be actually up for cuddles.” Taekwoon finally mumbles some time later, when Hongbin is almost dozing off.

“You were sad.”

“I wasn't sad, I was stressed.”

“Which equals sad in my book.” He moves in the very limited space they have trying to be comfortable again. “You should go soon… it'll be really weird to explain why you're leaving my room so late when for once we're not actually fucking.”

Taekwoon laughs with his face pressed into the pillow and a hand around Hongbin's waist. “Think I should…”

“I'm not saying it has to be now.”

“I know. But it's for the best.”

“Spoilsport.”

“I'll make up to you, I'm just really tired and if I stay any longer I'll just fall asleep.”

“I can wake you.”

A small kiss is all the apology Taekwoon offers before leaving.

The bed feels just a little colder.

But the again, the air con is back on.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really sick when I wrote this so this might be literal trash.


	14. Chapter 14

Hongbin is working on the sequencing. When he received the message saying the lab was open again the idea of pulling an all nighter came so naturally he didn't even have to think much.

His eyes sting with the red words blinking on the screen.

 

_INCOMPATIBLE_

 

Maybe he lost breakfast he just realized that… _damn._

He should maybe go check on that… maybe? He needs that tea to survive. Caffeine patches simply won't let him sleep for too many days… “Uh… Dr.Lee.”

The voice is somewhat familiar, must be one of the interns. He spins on his chair and makes a face at the pitched sound it makes. “Hm?”

“I… can I borrow some of your time, sir?” _This girl… what's her name again? Bora was it?_ An elusive little thing that seems to avoid direct contact with him or Sanghyuk at all costs.

“Hm.”

“I… really like you sir. I think you're smart and nice and kind and I wanted to know if you wanted to be friends.” She speaks all in one breath as if she expected him to interrupt her but Hongbin's not really the kind. “I know this is a really unappropriated request and I understand if you don't want to I just thought… maybe it was worth the shot.”

“You want to be my… friend?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay... But be honest with me will you? That's what friends do right?”

“Of course sir.”

“When you say friend, is that what you really mean? Or you mean friend as a way to get to know me better and maybe show me you are quite interesting and funny and whatever else so our _friendship_ will grow into something bigger maybe more serious…” He taps the tip of his pen over the table. “Will you be okay when after two years barely speaking outside work you finally realize we have nothing in common and I won't ever want anything at all from you? Will be fine knowing I won't ever kiss you, and won't ever love you, and won't ever introduce you to my family... Will you blame it all on me for leading you on when I knew what you meant by _friends_ in the first place? Will you tell your actual friends about the horrible  heartless person I am? How you shouldn’t have wasted your time on me just because of my pretty face.”

“I– Sir I 'd never–”

“You'd never? Because you're talking about this person, this _nice and kind_ person and if you knew me you'd know I'm none of that.” He sighs. “I'm skeptical, sassy, cheeky, unpleasant, rude, hostile, socially inept but I have this cute dimples and that makes you assume good things… I think it's fine you want to be _friends_ with someone nice and kind and smart and whatever but I'm not that person, and you should _not_ be my _friend._ ”

“Sir…”

“And stop calling me sir, I'm twenty six.” Having nothing to really discuss with her anymore he turns back to the screen where the _incompatible_ words still blink red and as she runs out of the room he thinks of how fitting that is…

_Incompatible that's for sure._

Now he wants his tea. And maybe he should go check the cafeteria. Sanghyuk looks sympathetic as he watches him go but Hongbin can't really name why… it's not the first heartbreak he causes and certainly it won't be the last.

It makes him think of a girl that had called him heartless in the past. He knows he isn't… if he was he would surely lead them on into thinking he was in love, it was easy to convince people when he was pretty like that. It didn't really _matter_ if they thought him heartless or selfish or whatever, he never really needed sympathy to live.

His bones were made of something stronger than that.

_These people don't mean anything, you know who you are._

He is tired… but there's work to be done still.

 

~×~

 

“Sir.”

It's funny how everyone pretends not to be seeing anything. “I conclude Nayoung must have talked to you.”

“Yes, sir.” Haebin keeps twisting her fingers behind her back, eyes alternating between the floor and Taekwoon when Taekwoon is looking at the screen as he types. “But I also thought it was time to face my mistakes.”

“Took you long enough. Almost a week and a threat.” Taekwoon speaks in his usual tone but Nayoung winces across the room. Haebin doesn't know exactly what to say. “Were you expecting me to congratulate you for your amazing act of courage? Sorry to disappoint.” She looks down. “Go do what you're paid the do. I don't have much patience left for you.”

“Sir, I–”

“If you want to apologize go apologize to Nayoung who handled all the extra work you left behind.” He feels the words arranging themselves, he feels the urge to say he is used to incompetence, but he won't say it. Again there's no need to humiliate a bunch of kids, this isn't even a job he would actually need this many people, a team this big, but he won't be here for long and once he is gone, maybe they'll need them all.

If this _facing feelings_ is a pattern, then maybe they will need even more people.

Regardless, Haebin goes away and he goes back to his coding, most of the system is working now but he has to check anyway.

He still has to go check the individual air conditioning in the residential quarters.

He didn't see Hongbin in the cafeteria that morning. Maybe he's sleeping in today, that’d be good. He has been looking tired these last few days. “I’m sorry Nayoung, for making you do my job.” Taekwoon looks over his shoulder. She really went? They sure are a bunch of kids really…

 

~×~

 

 

 

Hongbin stares at the monitor on the lab, after photographing all the new specimens and updating the datalog, facing not the first (and certainly not last) dead end to a corridor of failed experiments. Knowing he only has so much time before the discontinuation of this research and then what.

“Kong I'm gonna call it a day. I don't know what else we can do with the tools we have. It's late already you should sleep." Sanghyuk is throwing his gloves away and Hongbin wants to tell him to wait a bit, just a bit more.

But for what? Nothing.

Just so he won't be alone? That's no reason.

It hits him that those nights endlessly awake with Taekwoon are beating him down. He's not eighteen anymore to stay awake all night every night.

He mumbles his goodnights or in his head he does and Sanghyuk eventually leaves so he stays, staring at genetic sequencing displayed in the monitors spinning and twisting and changing.

The words blink red and angry at him:

 

_INCOMPATIBLE_

 

He's so tired… mentally drained.

It seems so far away from him how good his mood had been that morning… seems like days ago.

How many hours in a day?

How many days in an hour more like it.

His conversation with Taekwoon just the other night comes back to him, not for the first time since he started thinking about how tired he is. He doesn't usually _think_ about this… about being tired.

Somehow he knows he only ever feels like this… truly tired, truly spent, truly drained because he knows he cannot do much more… There are no _tools_ as Sanghyuk said. They are just so close to an answer Hongbin has even envisioned solution but this solution is not tangible and even if he calls his research a concrete thing, a reality in the present among other things that exist… it isn't.

Red letters spelling _incompatible_ is not concrete.

Dead rats are not _real things of the present._

He is tired.

He is just so tired.

The door opens, Hongbin didn't notice the lights turning off or his muscles becoming stiff until he tries to move again.

Taekwoon steps in gingerly, and Hongbin mildly thinks of how he always seems to appear when he's thinking of him. “Aren't you going to fight me for walking in here like this?” Taekwoon smiles, pushing the sweaty strands of his hair back, the door casts the only actual light inside the room and when Taekwoon closes it's all darkness again.

Hongbin turns to look at him and shake his head. He has been thinking and his body feels heavy, sluggish… He needs to sleep. “No… Come here.” He leans against the counter, tired, unwilling to walk to him but wanting him close regardless.

Taekwoon doesn't seem to mind.

Being pushed up on the counter was never the intention, and of course Taekwoon is wet, shirt sticking to his back and his lips tasting salty but Hongbin doesn't mind either. There is something comforting in having him here, _safe_ _with him_ that overcomes his distaste for both the sticky feeling of Taekwoon's sweaty and smoky hair between his fingers, radiating warmth, and the knowledge that he shouldn't be here, making out inside the research laboratory in the dark.

But there is a thrill in it, too, a young type of excitement at the possibility of being caught, knowing the door has no lock, hearing faint steps down the hallway, so close to them at all times as people go to their rooms one after the other.

That's the beauty of Taekwoon's presence, he is always thrilling, always so secretive and always close. His kisses taste like his teenage years making out on the back on the gym, on staircases and inside the biology lab, as the fetuses submerged in formaldehyde float in reused glass jars.  

Only this time the witnesses are his jellyfishes, swimming around in the small pressurised tank behind Taekwoon.

Taekwoon's mouth is insistent and wet along the column of his neck and down, to his shoulders, pushing the wide collar of his sweater to the side, a baby blue one his grandma gave him a few Christmas ago. It's old and discolored, but Hongbin likes it all the same, it reminds him of things he loves. Important things.

He likes the feeling of Taekwoon's lips too, small and naturally pouty, making him look either very childish or very displeased depending on the look on his eyes. Taekwoon is oddly intense for a man so silent. A pleased sigh leaves his lips, breath picking up, Taekwoon's hands curl around his hips, thumbs grazing over the protruding bones there. For once his hands feel warm.

He draws circles there, into his hips, hands rough after too many years working with machinery and naval equipment… Hongbin likes them too.

And maybe Hongbin doesn't voice but he is glad to see he is here, he just doesn't think he has to say it, not out loud. Taekwoon buries his nose into his neck and _inhales_ , Hongbin's arms snake around his shoulders to keep him there, lodged into the crook of his neck, no matter the sweat or the excessive heat.

It feels way more intimate than he gives himself the trouble of processing, arms and legs wounded around Taekwoon's body like vines to a three, his finger scrape along his scalp gently. Hongbin sighs again, content. He needed this a little bit, this little peace.

“I need a bath…” Taekwoon whispers after a few minutes just sharing warmth, and Hongbin hums, stills wrapped around him, Taekwoon's hands rest on the small of his back and Hongbin constantly thinks whether they will slide lower and be on his ass or not. He wouldn't oppose anyway.  “Do you want to come with me?”

The idea of detaching himself from Taekwoon is a little unpleasant, but walking may be worse.

“Do we have to go?”

“I do, but you don't have to.” Taekwoon still draws patterns under the hem of his sweater, his nails so short Hongbin can barely feel them on his skin.

He almost says that if he's going he has to go too, but that sounds way too sentimental inside his head and this is not about sentimentalism, not about that. He hums and says he will go in such a grumpy tone it causes Taekwoon to snicker.

“ _I can go yeah whatever_.”

With Taekwoon away from him the sweat starts cooling off on his skin, uncomfortable, on his clothes too. He smells the tips of his fingers multiple times.

It's not bad, not really, he knows too much of human's secretions to complain about sweat but the stickiness is probably the worst part of this whole thing, besides the smell of smoke bothers him a lot a lot more than fresh sweat ever would.

They walk in silence through the hallways, a feet away from each other like a pair of strangers, Taekwoon checking one of the portables he brought attached to his belt and Hongbin tapping away on his own. None of them feels the urge to talk, Taekwoon walking a little ahead of him and Hongbin falling behind, he is too tired to be any faster.

They just stepped into the communal bathroom and Taekwoon is already peeling his tank top off, throwing it into the sink, his shoulder blades facing Hongbin, much slower in pace, folding his clothes neatly and leaving them on a chair, along with his shoes, pants and underwear and pressing the button to get a disposable towel.

Taekwoon jumps a little when he sees Hongbin inside the stall with him. The small surprised gasp makes Hongbin smile a little. “I didn't know you would–”

“Shhh…” His arms around Taekwoon's neck easily, Hongbin kisses him slow, to wind him down… And it works, Taekwoon's arms circle his waist lightly and it's better like this, with more skin, feeling the little lump from the incision of the ID module on Taekwoon's nape, _all the Federation workers have one.._. As he heard so many times before.

Hongbin never worked for the Federation. “You still have your module?” He whispers the question for Taekwoon is too close still, pecking his lips between words as he harbors the courage to go turn on the shower.

“Not anymore.” Taekwoon says, finally backing away, but it's Hongbin who presses the button on the wall. Cold water hits Taekwoon's back and he hisses, tenses until it warms up. “I already told you that.”

They have three minutes.

“Let me wash your hair.” It's all Hongbin says, acknowledging the answer but not minding it enough to insist on the subject. He presses the dispenser on the side and immediately goes work his fingers into Taekwoon's scalp, watching as he lowers his head, helpful or maybe shy he can't tell but it doesn't matter either way.

Silence falls once again.

It stays when Taekwoon throws his head back under the spray of water to rinse the suds.

It's stays when Hongbin turns away to go silently wash himself, not minding or even thinking about Taekwoon not offering to wash his hair in return. It's not something he expects.

It stays when the water is cut off so this time Taekwoon has to press it again.

He holds him close as Hongbin deals with the foam over his eyes, resting his head back against the Taekwoon's broad shoulders and sighing, back pressed to his chest and resisting the temptation of leaving his entire weight for Taekwoon to hold. It's peaceful… Taekwoon lightly running his hands around his navel. “How is it going with your research?” Taekwoon asks him, voice soothing like his hands, warm like the water hitting Hongbin's face, this small talk sounds natural even if Hongbin would've preferred if they stayed in silence.

“As expected.” He rests his hands over Taekwoon's own around his waist, Taekwoon's chest rising and falling, in a slow, even pattern. “What about the machinery rooms?”

“One air con in the quarters caught fire… Luckily it wasn't a big one.” Taekwoon justifies, sounding sheepish about it. “We were running some tests and one of the systems went haywire. The resident will be moved now.”

“I see.”

The water is cut off again and they are forced to go out and dry themselves up. Taekwoon passes him a towel and Hongbin thanks him under his breath, trying to walk out of the stall just to be pulled back and pressed to the cold shower wall. Kissed with the same kind of fire that drew him to Taekwoon the first time.

“Are you mad at me?” Taekwoon asks against his lips, and Hongbin shakes his head in negative, he really isn't, but he’s tired, working too hard into isolating genes and making them compatible with creatures with more than 3 thousand years of evolution between each other. It seems like it's been forever since it all started. “Then what's going on?”

The door of the communal bathroom opens in that irritating squeak Hongbin grew used to after almost a decade. These people are talking, discussing thermogenesis and energy sources. They are not from Hongbin's section, he would know.

They take the stalls beside them and Hongbin looks uninterested, the stalls are closed with doors, and sure a closed stall with a turned off  shower is weird but people don't tend to linger in here for more than the absolutely necessary and they don't ask any questions either.

He kisses Taekwoon again, just a quick peck on the lips before falling to his knees.

Taekwoon looks mildly alarmed but Hongbin is fine, his head is full of words but he is not really into the mood for words now. He is exhausted and he will just go straight to bed tonight. But first… First he will do this.

When his tongue runs on the underside of Taekwoon's cock he hears him sigh as if frustrated. Hongbin likes to see him like that, likes the hitch between his brows and the way he chews on his own lips, likes the little strangled, muffled whines.

He likes all that a lot.

It's been awhile since they last got any kind of intimate. Hongbin was so consumed by his _options_ trying to agrupate gene sequences and Taekwoon had been messing with the air con still so…

The floor hurts his knees a little, it's rough, metallic… but it's okay, he can handle. He is used to falling down and kicking stuff and bumping into every table on the laboratory.

Taekwoon feels hot against the flat of his tongue, not fully hard yet but getting there… He can't take it all into his mouth unfortunately, the gagging reflex and the lack of practice stop him, make his jaw hurt, but Taekwoon doesn't seem to mind, forehead resting against the folded arms he placed against the wet wall, his eyes are closed and his hands formed fists, so tight his knuckles are white.

His pace is not rushed, he is not rushing, and Taekwoon isn't either, apparently… His cheeks dusted in pink and his lips chewed into redness. He is so beautiful...

It makes him want to kiss him again, but alas he has only one mouth to offer. The water of the stalls beside them stops and consequently so does Hongbin, Taekwoon's eyes fall open and he mutters a whine, a pitiful one, as the other two whom had entered after them dry themselves way too slowly, slowly enough for Hongbin to almost drift off as he waits, with his cheek resting against Taekwoon's thighs, Taekwoon working his fingers soothingly into his wet hair.

Not even the cold is being enough to keep him awake it seems.

He startles awake when Taekwoon sit on the floor with him. “They left.” He says, cupping his cheeks, and Hongbin is tempted to just lean against his palm and sleep.

He fights it back though. “Hm, what are you doing?” He asks softly, voice tinged with sleep. “I have to finish you off...”

“If you are so adamant about it.” He says, guiding his cold hand between his thighs. “But don't worry about it too much.”

“Is this okay?” Taekwoon nods, soothing, accommodating, and Hongbin hums, regretful, he wanted to do more than that, but he is too tired as he is. “Afraid I might pass out with your dick on my mouth?”

Taekwoon scoffs a little mortified laugh. Hongbin is not usually this crass. “Yeah, you can call it that.”

Hongbin scoots closer to him, slowly, to rest against his shoulder and hum when Taekwoon's arm comes around his waist to secure him there, beside him. Then he can pick up a pace, a nice one, comfortable for them both, not too rushed, but not tortuously slow either, face tilted up to watch the way Taekwoon's eyes close again, how his pretty mouth falls slightly open.

How he holds his breath when he is close to orgasming and how his lips tremble when he does.

Waiting for him to catch his breath, blinking slowly. “I… would offer to do the same for you, but there was a possibility you would fall asleep on me.” He says shyly and Hongbin hums again. “So let's say I owe you one.”

“You're very pretty you know that?”

“You're talking nonsense let's get you dry.” Taekwoon tells him sheepishly, helping Hongbin up to his feet and offering him a towel. He finishes dressing (into his dirty old clothes he will change as soon as he gets to his room) before Hongbin is done shimming into his jeans again.

He helps him dress too so they can leave, Hongbin sweater is turned inside out but he won't fuss about it, he will guide Hongbin through the corridors until they find the residential quarters and Hongbin's muscle memory picks up from there and carries him to his room. “Are you going to bed?” Hongbin asks him when they finally get there, his eyes barely even open by this point.

“I will.”

“Then sleep well...” He places a little kiss that was probably aimed somewhere between his mouth and his cheek but lands on his shoulder instead. He values the intention either way.

“Thanks. You too.” Being the functional one of the two, he kisses Hongbin's forehead in a very rare demonstration of care (he really isn't one for PDA and they are, virtually, in public) and watches Hongbin scrunch his nose just a little.

“Don't do that, my grandma does that…” he mumbles and Taekwoon chuckles, Hongbin is cute when he's tired. Maybe because he's not acting like a sassy little shit when he's like that.

“Good night.” He says again, fondly as Hongbin backs off of him.

“You already said that you doofus...” He mumbles, walking down the hall with a long yawn, almost kicking the trash can on the way. Taekwoon smiles a little as he watches him walk away with a hand against the wall so he can walk with his eyes closed, touch his way down to his own door.

He should know Hongbin is never not a sassy little shit.

He walks away too.

He wants to change his clothes, they feels disgusting.

“Taekwoon…” He can see Hongbin's faint outline somewhere ahead in the dark when he looks over his shoulder. “Come here.”

Taekwoon smiles and walks to him in the dark.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a month already jeeeesus  
> On a side note I really like this chapter,that's rare for me

**Author's Note:**

> I think it's about time I post something new around here. I want some opinions :)


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